The Gazprom Board of Directors meeting is underway. Taking part in the meeting are Elvira Nabiullina, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation, and Pavel Fyodorov, Deputy Energy Minister of Russian Federation. The Board of Directors considered the information on the long-term gas production and consumption scenarios, as well as the measures on increasing Gazprom's LNG production and supplies to the domestic and foreign markets.

The Company's Management Committee is tasked to prepare proposals on updating the Gazprom LNG Production and Supply Strategy.

Background

All the international analytical centers, industrial and independent consulting companies forecast a steady increase in LNG consumption over the long term. According to the consensus forecasts of the research centers (International Energy Agency, Energy Information Agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, IHS CERA, PIRA, etc.), the global gas demand will grow 1.5–2 per cent a year on average, ensuring a 1.4–2 trillion cubic meters increase in consumption by 2035.

The highest rates of growth will be in Asia-Pacific countries, where the average annual consumption rate will reach 3.2–4 per cent. The increase of consumption rate in Asian countries will be secured, first of all by India and China. According to the forecasts, 23 per cent of the global gas consumption volume increase accrues to China, and by 2030 it will become comparable with the European countries.

The key point of the world market development is the sufficiency of resources to secure the demand in the long run. Currently, the world proven natural gas reserves total 208.4 trillion cubic meters, the bulk of which is in the Middle East (38.4 per cent) and in Russia (21.4 per cent). Gazprom possesses the largest natural gas reserves in the world (18 per cent), which gives the company a significant competitive advantage over other global energy suppliers in the long term.

Another important trend in the fuel market is the world LNG trade that has reached 25 per cent by 2011. It is conditioned upon new importing countries and new LNG sales markets formation. According to IEA, in the next 20 years LNG will ensure more than a half of the interregional gas trade increase and by 2030, will double and total 635 – 745 billion cubic meters a year.

By implementing its LNG Production and Supply Strategy, Gazprom will strengthen its positions of the largest hydrocarbon feedstock supplier in the global gas market. As part of the Strategy, the Company is engaged into the following top-priority activities:

• The Company's sales market expansion by increasing LNG volumes on the export portfolio by LNG production and supplies from the Russian Far East and Shtokman project.
• Entering the foreign LNG projects in order to gain rights for final products marketing and Gazprom Group's marketing potential development in the LNG trade sector.
• Development of LNG production and supplies to the domestic market as part of low and medium-tonnage LNG projects, enabling gasification of the remote from the UGSS consumers and develop retail marketing infrastructure of natural gas as motor fuel.