Today the Gazprom Headquarters has hosted a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Harufumi Mochizuki, Director-General of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Alexey Miller and Harufumi Mochizuki addressed issues relating to the implementation of the Framework Agreement of Cooperation between Gazprom and the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. Special attention was paid to matters with regard to attracting Japanese funding and technology to develop Russia’s gas processing, gas chemicals and machine-building facilities within the scope of Gazprom’s East Program.

Harufumi Mochizuki voiced his support for Gazprom and the Sakhalin-2 project partners to achieve in-principle agreements on the former’s joining the project as its leading shareholder, which would secure future stability of LNG supply to Japan.

Additionally, Gazprom and Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy have conducted today the 1st meeting of the Joint Coordinating Committee, moderated on behalf of the Russian side by Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee.

The parties formulated the organizational mechanism for joint activities and identified cooperation priorities for 2007, in the sci-tech sector inclusive.

At the end of the meeting the parties signed a relevant Protocol.

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Possessing scarce domestic energy resources, Japan is the world’s fourth-largest country in terms of energy consumption averaging 80 bcm per year. The share of gas in Japan’s energy mix stands at 13 per cent and is anticipated to grow. Japan imports 100 per cent of the total gas consumed in the form of liquefied natural gas and is the world’s top LNG importer.

Gazprom and the Natural Resources & Energy Agency of Japan’s Economy, Trade & Industry Ministry signed the Framework Agreement of Cooperation on November 21, 2005. The Agreement sets out major joint businesses in the gas sector.