Today at Gazprom headquarters Alexei Miller, Chairman of Gazprom's Management Committee, held a working meeting with Alexander Mikhailov, Governor of Kurskaya Oblast.

The parties discussed the progress in implementing the Agreement on cooperation between Gazprom and Kurskaya Oblast. The issues of the oblast gasification were discussed, as well as increasing gas supplies to the regions' customers. One of the main points of discussion was the problem of covering the overdue payments for gas already supplied.

Reference:

The five year Agreement on cooperation between Gazprom and Kurskaya Oblast was signed in December 2002.

Last year Gazprom supplied 1.8 billion cubic meters of gas to the oblast, which constituted 108.8% of the planned volume. In 2004, supplies will remain at approximately the same level.

In the nine months of 2004, Kurskaya Oblast's consumers' debt for supplied gas decreased by more than RUR 34.5 million, but is still quite high. As of 1 September 2002, payments overdue amount to more than RUR 216 million. The main part is the debts of residential customers (around RUR 140 million).

The level of gasification in Kurskaya Oblast is 52.6% (the average in Russia is 52.7%).In 2004, Gazprom will invest around RUR 110 million in the oblast's gasification in accordance with the program of Russian regions' gasification.

DIVISION OF RELATIONS WITH MASS MEDIA