The Gazprom Headquarters hosted today the first working meeting between Alexey Miller, the Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Serik Burkitbayev, the new President of the KazMunaiGaz National Company.

The parties emphasized the efficiency of cooperation between Gazprom and the KazMunaiGaz National Company and expressed theit confidence in further strengthening of the bilateral relations.

The meeting underlined the importance of the joint projects implementation along the entire value chain. The parties discussed the progress in creating a joint venture based on the Orenburg Gas Processing Plant.

The special attention was paid to conducting a joint marketing policy through the united export channel provided by the Russian-Kazakhstan joint venture KazRosGaz. The performance of KazRosGaz was evaluated positively, the requirement was declared to further develop the company.

The meeting also addressed a set of measures aimed at expansion and modernization of the Central Asia – Center gas trunkline system.

Background:

In June 2002 Gazprom and the KazMunaiGaz National Company established on a parity basis and registered in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the KazRosGaz joint venture to deal with natural gas purchase, marketing and processing (at gas treatment plants in Russia), and other businesses.

In September 2006 the Gazprom Board of Directors approved setting up on a par with KazMunaiGaz a Russian-Kazakhstan joint venture based on the processing capacities of the Orenburg Gas Processing Plant (GPP).

In June 2007 Gazprom and the KazMunaiGaz National Company signed an Agreement on the major principles for the creation and operation of the joint venture based on the Orenburg GPP.

The core business activity of the joint venture will be rendering services related to the processing of hydrocarbon resources from the Orenburg Oblast and the Karachaganak field on a processing fee basis.

Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. is an operating company of the Karachaganak field. KazRosGaz will purchase its hydrocarbon resources and transfer them for processing by the joint venture. Afterwards, the bulk of processed gas  will be channeled to the domestic market of Kazakhstan, and the rest part will be sold under export arrangements.