The Gazprom Headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Helge Lund, StatoilHydro’s President and CEO.

The meeting discussed the current issues with regard to implementing the first phase of the Shtokman gas and condensate field (SGCF) development, as well as the prospects for furthering the cooperation between Gazprom and StatoilHydro.

The parties gave a positive evaluation to the work done by the special purpose company Shtokman Development AG surrounding the preparation of the front-end engineering design (FEED) and feasibility study for the project.

Background:

On October 25, 2007 Gazprom and StatoilHydro signed the Framework Agreement on the main terms of cooperation for the first phase development of the Shtokman gas and condensate field. Gazprom and Total signed a similar Agreement on July 13, 2007.

On February 21, 2008 Gazprom, Total and StatoilHydro signed the Shareholder Agreement to create the special purpose company Shtokman Development AG for engineering, developing, constructing, financing and operating the SGCF first phase facilities.

The special-purpose company will be the owner of Shtokman’s first phase infrastructure over 25 years from the field startup date.

The relations between the special purpose company and Sevmorneftegaz (license holder for SGCF) will be based on a contract, pursuant to which the company will bear all financial, geological and technological risk while extracting gas and condensate and producing LNG.

Gazprom retains a 100 per cent stake in Sevmorneftegaz and all product marketing rights.

The Shtokman field is located in the central region of the Russian sector of the Barents Sea.

The deposit holds C1+C2 reserves of 3.8 tcm of gas and around 31 million t of gas condensate.

The SGCF development project is strategically important for Gazprom. The field will be a resource base for Russian gas deliveries, both pipeline gas and LNG.