Led by Andrey Kruglov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee – Head of the Finance and Economics Department of Gazprom, the Company’s delegation paid a working visit to Germany.

As part of the visit, Andrey Kruglov met with Jim Hagemann Snabe, Co-Chief Executive Officer of SAP AG. Based on the meeting results, the parties signed a Corporate License Agreement.

The Agreement stipulates special purchasing terms and conditions for the SAP software utilization rights and support services, taking into account the functional and organizational scope of the informatization projects implemented by Gazprom. The signed Agreement will substantially optimize the total ownership cost of SAP software solutions and ensure flexibility in fulfilling the key initiatives of the Gazprom Informatization Strategy.

The parties stated that the signed Agreement confirmed the reliability and constructive nature of the partnership relations, as well as opened the prospects for deepening cooperation between the companies.

A number of meetings was also held with top executives of SAP AG, during which the parties discussed the interaction pattern when implementing the Gazprom Informatization Strategy and outlined the prioritized cooperation areas for 2010.

Particular attention was paid to the prospects for reshaping the Company’s business activities associated with utilization of SAP software products, standardization of business processes, introduction and replication of typical solutions to provide their automation.

In addition, the negotiators addressed the quality control issues related to Gazprom’s informatization projects and establishment of the integrated IT-infrastructure of the Gazprom Group in the aim of deploying business applications based on SAP software solutions. An emphasis was placed on potential support in using and developing SAP applications and setting up a Competence Center for SAP software products on the basis of Gazprom inform, a subsidiary IT service company.

Based on the meeting results, Jim Hagemann Snabe underlined that SAP AG management was highly interested in cooperating with Gazprom as a global energy company in state-of-the-art IT solutions deployment.