Oil fields of OJSC “Surgutneftegas” are located on the lands that have traditionally been used by the indigenous minorities of the North.

The Company’s business is currently located on the territory where 254 Khanty families of more than 1,000 people live. To coordinate work with Khanty families, the Company established Minority Affairs Department, whose main goal is to enter into effective cooperation with the taiga inhabitants.

For eight years Surgutneftegas has been concluding contracts to use land for production purposes with heads of Khanty families. These contracts specify the terms of compensation for impairing their traditional way of life that results from the Company’s activities. Such relations help to find solution to social problems of the indigenous minorities of the North and to preserve their national identity.

As part of the contracts, the Company annually makes over power units, lubricants, boat engines, “Buran” snowmobiles, building materials, working clothes, power saws, and food to the heads of Khanty families and builds houses on a grant basis. The Company’s facilities are fenced off with a koral to preserve deer population. Each member of the family receives monetary compensation. Every year the Department’s officers in cooperation with local authorities arrange traditional festivals, such as the Hunter and Fisher’s Day, or the Raven’s Return Day. The Company sponsors these festivals and awards those who win in the traditional competitions.

If they need to ship the foods they had preserved, or convey their children to the school, or visit a hospital, the Khanty avail themselves of Surgutneftegas’s helicopters and vehicles. Some of the Khanty children go to schools at the Company’s expense. OJSC “Surgutneftegas” also pays for the treatment the indigenous people receive from medical institutions and at health resorts.

In 2003, the Company’s contractual obligations related to the minorities issues amounted to RUR 30 mn.

Besides, in all of the seven districts of its oil and gas production, OJSC “Surgutneftegas” participates in social and economic programs launched by the local authorities to support the indigenous population.

Since the Company is starting to develop new license blocks, in 2004 we are planning to sign agreements with 272 families with the total value amounting to USD 1.3 mn.

Press Service of OJSC “Surgutneftegas”