Gazprom Headquarters hosted a regular meeting of the Company's Coordination Committee for Informatization under the chairmanship of Andrey Kruglov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee – Head of the Department for Finance and Economics.

The meeting brought together members of the Coordination Committee for Informatization, heads of Steering Committees for informatization projects, heads and experts from Gazprom's structural subdivisions and specialized subsidiaries.

The meeting addressed the interim results of the following projects execution:

- creation of an Information and Management System for Mineral Resource Base Replenishment and Hydrocarbon Production (IMS MRB) of Gazprom;

- creation of an Information and Management System for Gas and Condensate Transmission (IMS T) of Gazprom;

- modernization of an Automated Dispatch Control System for the Unified Gas Supply System (ADCS UGSS).

The meeting discussed the targets, goals, as well as the functional, organizational and methodological aspects of the projects. Special attention was paid to the information protection, as well as the functional, informational and technological integration as part of the Gazprom Informatization Strategy involving the target information and management systems.

It was noted that IMS MRB, IMS T creation and ADCS UGSS modernization projects were oriented at raising the production management efficiency via application of up-to-date automated systems for planning, operating management, performance monitoring, accumulating full, consistent and timely information required for decision-making at all levels of Gazprom's management, as well as via harmonization and development of the methodological and regulatory basis for the business processes being automated.

Based on the meeting results Steering Committees for informatization projects were tasked to ensure timely implementation of work as prescribed by the Plan for Informatization Strategy Implementation.

Background:

The Informatization Strategy of Gazprom was adopted by the Management Committee's resolution of January 17, 2008. The Strategy defines key directions for the Company's information technologies development to achieve its strategic goals.

The Strategy is pursued through application of a broad range of project management methods in line with the plans adopted on an annual basis. The Gazprom's Plan for Informatization Strategy Implementation in 2009 was adopted by the Management Committee Chairman Alexey Miller on April 6, 2009. The Plan provides for the following major activities:

- creation of vertically-integrated information and management systems on the basis of the Corporate data storage to support the corporate management processes in the gas industry;

- creation of typical information and management systems for the subsidiaries operating in the gas industry with due regard to characteristic features of certain businesses of Gazprom;

- introduction of system-wide solutions ensuring information and technological integration of functional components within a target system architecture (corporate data storage, intra-corporate Internet portal).

Execution of the informatization projects portfolio provided for by the Plan will allow to create a single information medium ensuring unification and transparency of corporate reporting from primary sources to key efficiency indicators and risks.

Information and technological integration functions of the information and management systems set up within the Company's Integration Strategy are vested in the Information and Analytical Systems Directorate, Department for Finance and Economics, Gazprom.

In order to establish a single center of responsibility on the operating level for the key initiatives implementation within the Strategy, Gazprom's Board of Directors made a decision to set up a subsidiary IT services company, Gazprom inform, by reorganizing two of the Company's subsidiaries, Informgazinvest and Informgaz.

Gazprom's IMS MRB, IMS T and ADCS UGSS are vertically-integrated systems supporting corporate management processes in the gas industry.

IMS MRB and IMS T are designed to automate the Production Management business process incorporating the following activities: mineral resource base replenishment and hydrocarbons production, gas and condensate transmission, underground gas storage, and gas distribution. The projects should result in the introduction of state-of-the-art planning, operating management and performance monitoring instruments for the efficient management of production facilities throughout their lifecycle from R&D, design and exploration work up to liquidation.

Gazprom's ADCS UGSS modernization is aimed at enabling continuous operating and dispatch control over the modes of gas production, processing, transmission, storage and distribution facilities operation; optimization of the gas transmission system operation mode and UGS facilities' gas injection (withdrawal) levels; reliability and efficiency of gas supply to consumers. The project execution should result in the implementation of the cutting-edge methods, models and automation techniques for dispatch information collection, processing, storage and analysis ensuring the integrity of regulatory and reference information, data storages, information exchange among each and every level of dispatch control over Gazprom's UGSS.