The XI International Economic Forum is underway in St. Petersburg. In the frames of the Forum the Deputy Management Committee Chairmen Valery Golubev, Andrey Kruglov, Alexander Medvedev and Sergey Khomyakov met with the leading representatives of the political and economic community of the Forum’s member-countries as well as the companies’ leaders participating in the event.

Particularly, Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee met with His Excellency Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al-Thani, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar. Within the meeting the parties discussed issues relevant to the Russian-Qatari cooperation in the energy sector, which were discussed under the official visit of the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin to Doha and further meetings of the Gazprom Management Committee Chairman Alexey Miller with the Qatari side in April and May 2007. The participants also examined the cooperation issues on the third countries’ energy markets.

The Gazprom delegation also met with Willy Rickett, Deputy Energy Minister of Great Britain, Jean Lemierre, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Fulvio Conti, CEO and General Manager of Enel, James Dupree, Vice-President of BP, Viktor Vekselberg, Executive Director Gas Development of TNK-BP Management as well as representatives of Siemens and Dow Chemical.

The parties basically discussed mutual cooperation, further cooperation prospects and joint projects execution.

Valery Golubev, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee took part in a session of the Investment Commission for selecting projects eligible for state support at the expense of the Russian Federation Investment Fund.