Rio de Janeiro hosted today a ceremonial opening of a Gazprom representative office in Brazil.

Attending the ceremonial opening were Pavel Oderov, Head of the International Business Department, Sergey Akopov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Brazil, representatives of the national executive and legislative authorities, and leaders of Latin American petroleum companies.

“For Gazprom, Latin America is a strategically important region, which we believe to be promising in terms of the gas business development. The discovery of considerable hydrocarbon fields and the rapid growth of natural gas consumption in various economic sectors will enable us to successfully develop the partnership relations in this region,” said Pavel Oderov.

Background

In February 2007 Gazprom and Brazilian oil and gas company Petrobras signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The document stipulates mutually beneficial cooperation in the hydrocarbon exploration, production, transmission and marketing sectors. Special attention is paid to the cooperation in offshore fields development as well as novel technologies and LNG production.

In March 2008 Gazprom and the Bolivian state-owned petroleum company YPFB signed an Agreement on geological exploration of Sunchal and Azero blocks in Bolivia.

In February 2009 Gazprom and YPFB signed an Agreement on the General Scheme elaboration for the Bolivian gas industry development until 2030.

In September 2010 Gazprom EP International and Total signed a Farmout Agreement in relation to a 20 per cent stake in Bolivia's Ipati and Aquio blocks exploration project.

In October 2011 Gazprom and PdVSA signed a Memorandum of Understanding which stipulated possible creation of a joint venture to develop the Robalo gas field in the Gulf of Venezuela.

In accordance with the decision by the Gazprom Board of Directors, a representative office was opened in the Federal Republic of Brazil in 2010. Shakarbek Osmonov was appointed as Director of the representative office. The main tasks of the office are to assist in implementation of the long-term mutually beneficial cooperation of Gazprom and Latin American countries, to represent and protect the Company's interests in the region.

The representative office activities also include finding new directions and operation forms for Gazprom in Latin American energy markets. Besides, the office will provide information and analysis support for the projects being implemented in the region and participate in coordination of the efforts taken by the Gazprom established companies in Latin America.