A meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Helge Lund, President and CEO of Statoil took place today as part of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2012.

The parties addressed the cooperation outlook for Shtokman Phase 1 development. Alexey Miller and Helge Lund also discussed the companies positions regarding a new agreement to be prepared as part of the project. The talks will be continued.

Background

The core businesses of Statoil are oil and gas exploration and production. The company has been producing hydrocarbons on the Norwegian continental shelf for over 35 years and is the pioneer in offshore projects implementation in harsh climatic conditions. The Norwegian government is the major shareholder of Statoil (67 per cent).

The Shtokman field is situated in the central part of the continental shelf within the Russian sector of the Barents Sea.

C1 reserves of the field make up 3.9 trillion cubic meters of gas and 56 million tons of gas condensate.

The Shtokman gas and condensate field development project is of strategic importance for Gazprom. The project implementation will give a start to a new gas production region on the Arctic shelf of Russia.

The Shtokman field will become a resource base for building up deliveries of Russian pipeline gas and LNG to domestic and foreign markets.

Gazprom Neft Shelf, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom, holds the gas and gas condensate exploration and production license for the Shtokman field.

On February 21, 2008 Gazprom, Total and StatoilHydro (present Statoil) signed the Shareholders Agreement on establishing Shtokman Development AG , a special purpose vehicle to implement Phase 1 of the project. Gazprom holds 51 per cent in the company, while Total and Statoil hold 25 and 24 per cent accordingly.