A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Gazprom’s Management Committee Chairman and Dr. Jurgen Hambrecht, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF AG was conducted today at Gazprom’s Headquarters.

The meeting addressed the bilateral cooperation deepening, reviewing joint implementation of Gazprom-led projects, including the North-European gas pipeline (NEGP) construction and field development. In this regard, the parties discussed potential involvement of WINGAS GmbX (a joint venture of Gazprom and Wintershall AG) in the NEGP construction feasibility study.

At the same time, Alexey Miller and Jurgen Hambrecht debated cooperation between the companies within the Achimgaz joint venture, which was completing a scrupulous technological study and was gearing up for gas and condensate production from the 1st pilot play of the Achimov deposits of the Urengoyskoye oil and gas condensate field.

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BASF AG is a leading chemical corporation in the world, running business in the chemicals, synthetic materials, plant protection goods as well as oil and natural gas sectors. In 2003, the company's turnover exceeded EUR 33 billion.

Wintershall AG, a BASF AG 100% subsidiary, is operating in the power generation sector. Gazprom and Wintershall AG have been cooperating for so far over 13 years through their subsidiaries WINGAS (35% and 65%, respectively) and WIEH (50% and 50%, respectively).

In July 2003, Gazprom and Wintershall AG founded the 50/50 Achimgaz joint venture with the view of developing on a contract basis the 1st pilot play of the Achimov deposits of the Urengoyskoye oil and gas condensate field. Over the entire development period (43 years), the companies plan to extract some 200 bcm of gas and 40 million tons of gas condensate, with 8.3 bcm of gas and 2.4 million tons of gas condensate to be produced on an annual basis within continuous production.

The North-European gas pipeline (NEGP) is targeted to mark a qualitatively new phase of cooperation with European gas customers, for the first time carrying Russian natural gas directly to Europe without the transiting countries’ involvement.

The gearing up for the NEGP project implementation is progressing at full speed. A big scope of work is being performed to study a roughly 917-km-long onshore section of NEGP in Russia.

Due documents for the selection of building sites for compressor stations have been registered and a draft transportation scheme for the NEGP construction has been developed in the Vologda region, with the NEGP transmission part and supporting communications projects completed.

At the same time, a technological scheme of NEGP has been devised, original data on the NEGP transmission part and all projected sites for compressor stations collected and engineering survey on NEGP-supporting infrastructure initiated in the Leningrad region.

Gazprom started developing the Yuzhno-Russkoye field being the mainstay of feedstock to be shipped via NEGP. With its gas reserves valued at over 1 tcm, the field has already undergone initial seismic survey and is being equipped with drilling units.

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