On 4 December, Gazprom’s delegation leaded by Stanislav Tsygankov, Head of the Company’s Foreign Relations Department went on a business trip to Islamabad.

In the course of the trip, the delegation held a meeting with Ahmad Waqar, Secretary of the Petroleum & Natural Resources Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The meeting addressed the outlooks of cooperation between Russia and Pakistan in the oil and gas sector, focusing, in particular, on potential bilateral interaction in Pakistan’s oil & gas field exploration and development, gas infrastructure development as well as implementation of projects on natural gas use as motor fuel. The parties considered it as expedient to review the prospect of extending a Memorandum of understanding signed in 2002 between Gazprom and Pakistan’s Petroleum & Natural Resources Ministry.

“Deepening of cooperation with Pakistan’s Petroleum & Natural Resources Ministry is one of Gazprom’s top priority businesses in South Asia. There is a range of objective pre-requisites for the intensification of cooperation between Gazprom and the Pakistani side on a whole series of promising projects. Pakistan’s economic expansion and, correspondingly, the country’s increased energy needs are being regarded upon as one of the major pre-requisites. Our company is set to keep on building up comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan,” – stated Stanislav Tsygankov.

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Being the sixth-largest in Asia Pacific (preceded in amount by those concentrated in Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, China and India), Pakistan’s proved natural gas reserves account for 750 bcm, with Sui, Sawan and Multan being the country’s major gas production areas.

Pakistan’s annual gas extraction accounts for 21 bcm (data for 2003), with the entire gas amount consumed domestically. Natural gas and oil shares in the country’s power and fuel balance amount to 43% and 37%, respectively. According to forecasts, natural gas demand in Pakistan will jump to 30 bcm by 2006.

Pakistan is the world’s third-largest country using natural gas as motor fuel.

Gazprom and Pakistan’s Petroleum & Natural Resources Ministry signed the Memorandum of understanding on 11 November 2002 in Islamabad.

DIVISION OF RELATIONS WITH MASS MEDIA