Today the Gazprom Headquarters hosted a meeting moderated by Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Company's Management Committee. The issues of the Shtokman gas and condensate field development were discussed.

Taking part in the meeting were Vasily Podyuk, Member of the Management Committee, Head of the Gas, Gas Condensate and Oil Production Department, heads and experts of the relevant subdivisions of Gazprom, as well as Gazprom dobycha shelf, Gazflot, Giprospetsgaz and Shtokman Development AG. The meeting was also attended by the representatives of the Krylov Shipbuilding Research Institute, State Navigation and Hydrographic Research Institute under the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense, Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport.

The meeting participants discussed the issues related to the layout of the port and transportation complex infrastructure near Teriberka to be used at each and every phase of the Shtokman project execution. In particular, the meeting addressed the results of physical and mathematical simulation for optional locations of the LNG and gas condensate export facility.

Summing up the meeting the relevant subdivisions of Gazprom were charged with the appropriate tasks.

Background:

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

The C1+C2 reserves of the field account for 3.8 trillion cubic meters of gas and around 31 million tons of gas condensate.

The Shtokman gas and condensate field development project is of strategic importance for Gazprom. The field will become a resource base for deliveries of Russian gas – both pipeline and LNG – to the Atlantic basin markets.

Sevmorneftegaz (a wholly owned subsidiary of Gazprom) holds the gas and gas condensate exploration and production license for the Shtokman field.

Gazprom determined Total (France) and StatoilHydro (Norway) as partners to execute the Shtokman project.

In February 2008 Gazprom, Total and StatoilHydro signed the Shareholder Agreement on establishing Shtokman Development AG, a special-purpose company to implement the engineering, development, construction, financing, and operation of the first phase facilities intended for the Shtokman field development.

The special-purpose company will own the infrastructure of the first phase of the Shtokman field for 25 years, starting from the field commissioning date.

In 2008 the Vyborg Shipbuilding Plant launched the construction of two semi-submersible drilling rigs for drilling production wells in the Shtokman field.

Designed for operation in severe climate conditions, the Polyarnaya Zvezda and Severnoye Siyanie platforms can resist low temperature and the waves up to 32 meters high, perform exploratory and production drilling of gas and oil wells reaching 7,500 meters at water depth of 70–500 meters.

The first semi-submersible drilling rig is to be constructed in the fourth quarter of 2010, the second one – in the first quarter of 2011.