The Gazprom Headquarters has hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Zsolt Hernadi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Hungarian oil & gas company MOL. The parties discussed issues related to bilateral cooperation in the oil and gas sector.

The parties discussed the operating results of the Project Company responsible for preparing the South Stream project.

Additionally, Zsolt Hernadi informed Alexey Miller on the initiative to set up a joint gas transportation company aimed at operating in the Central and South-Eastern markets of Europe.

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Russia supplies about 80 per cent of Hungary’s total natural gas imports. Over 2005 Gazprom provided Hungary with 9 bcm of gas.

MOL is engaged in oil and gas exploration, production, transmission and marketing well as operation of a 5.2-thousand-km-long gas pipeline network. The company controls more than 440 filling stations in Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.

On June 21, 2006 Gazprom and MOL Group entered into the Agreement of cooperation, which stipulates that the parties would set up a Project Company to be responsible for preparing a feasibility study for a project aimed at creating a South European gas pipeline and underground gas storage system on the Hungarian territory.

In the aim of executing the Agreement in 2006 the parties set up and registered SEPCO Project Company in the territory of Hungary on a parity basis of Gazprom and MOL. The parties also set up the company’s Management Committee.