Today at the GDF SUEZ Headquarters in Paris Sergey Khomyakov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Jean-Marie Dauger, Executive Vice President of GDF SUEZ have signed an Agreement of Cooperation in Personnel Training.

Pursuant to the document, Gazprom and GDF SUEZ will support the training and probation programs for their employees in Russia and France. The training programs involve such areas as economics and management of gas companies, safety and industrial risks management, international projects execution, LNG production, transportation and regasification, natural gas production from offshore fields, as well as natural gas transportation and storage.

“The long-standing partnership of Gazprom and GDF SUEZ is not limited to Russian gas supplies to France. Our companies are maintaining a constant dialogue on a variety of issues, with the priority given to sharing the expertise in the energy business,” stated Sergey Khomyakov.

Jean-Marie Dauger expressed his content about the Agreement signing: “Today’s document will enable our companies to carry out regular exchange of groups of managers and experts. It will also contribute to the strengthening of mutual understanding and trust, thus facilitating execution of joint projects.”

Background:

Gazprom secures around 29 per cent of gas imports to France.

The cooperation between Gazprom and Gaz de France in the area of gas supply was launched in September 1975. Over this period Gazprom supplied France with more than 300 billion cubic meters of gas, with 10.9 billion cubic meters supplied in 2008.

In November 2005 Gazprom and Gaz de France entered into the first LNG swap deal. In early December 2005 a tanker filled with LNG was sold to Shell Western LNG at the Cove Point regasification terminal (Maryland, USA).

In December 2006 Gazprom and Gaz de France signed the Agreement to extend the existing contracts for Russian gas supply to France up to 2030. In addition, an agreement was reached to launch extra gas supplies to Gaz de France via the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The annual gas supply volume will be 2.5 billion cubic meters.

In addition, Gazprom obtained an opportunity to directly deliver gas to ultimate consumers of France in the amount of up to 1.5 billion cubic meters per annum starting from October 2007.

On September 29, 2006 Gazprom and Gaz de France signed the first Agreement of Cooperation in the field of personnel training and development.

Being one of the largest European energy companies, GDF SUEZ was incorporated in 2008 as a result of the merger between Gaz de France and SUEZ.

GDF SUEZ deals with power generation and implements natural gas exploration, production, processing and marketing projects.