The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company's Management Committee and Helge Lund, President and Chief Executive Officer of Statoil.

The parties discussed cooperation issues on launching the Shtokman field Phase 1 pre-development.

Background

The core businesses of Statoil are oil and gas exploration and production. The company has been producing hydrocarbons on the Norwegian continental shelf for over 35 years and is the pioneer in offshore projects implementation in harsh climatic conditions. The Norwegian government is the major shareholder of Statoil (67 per cent).

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

C1 reserves make up 3.9 trillion cubic meters of gas and 56 million tons of gas condensate.

The Shtokman gas and condensate field development project is of strategic importance for Gazprom. The project implementation will give a start to a new gas production region in the Arctic shelf of Russia.

The Shtokman field will become a resource base for building up deliveries of Russian gas both by pipeline and in the form of LNG (liquefied natural gas) to the domestic and foreign markets.

Gazprom Neft Shelf, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom, holds the gas and gas condensate exploration and production license for the Shtokman field.

On February 21, 2008 Gazprom, Total and StatoilHydro (present Statoil) signed the Shareholders Agreement on establishing Shtokman Development AG , a special purpose vehicle to implement Phase 1 of the project. Gazprom holds 51 per cent in the company, while Total and Statoil hold 25 and 24 per cent accordingly.

Shtokman Development AG will own Shtokman Phase 1 infrastructure for 25 years, starting from the date on which the field is brought onstream.