Today, in Hanoi, within the official visit of the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin to the Republic of Vietnam, Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Tran Ngoc Canh, President & Chief Executive Officer of Petrovietnam (Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation) have entered into an Agreement of cooperation.

The Agreement stipulates cooperation between the companies in the following areas:

• Natural gas, oil and other energy exploration, production, transportation, utilization and marketing;
• Oil & gas pipeline, storage facility as well as distribution pipeline network engineering, construction, operation and maintenance;
• Oil & gas pipeline as well as other gas and petrochemical infrastructure inspection and monitoring;
• Oil and gas powered vehicles, gas distribution and fuelling station network development and management;
• Oil, gas and other hydrocarbon processing;
• Oil & gas derivative as well as oil & gas industry equipment supplies.

Pursuant to the Agreement, the parties also agreed to promote interaction within promising projects in third countries, including when exploring and developing gas and oil fields.

Additionally, the parties are intent on interacting in the sci-tech, staff qualification upgrading and training sectors.

To successfully implement the Agreement the parties will consider the possibility of establishing Special Task Forces.

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Founded in 1975, Petrovietnam (Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation) holds licenses to prospect for, produce and process oil and gas as well as is engaged in other oil and gas projects, and owns prominent natural gas transmission, distribution, sale, processing and storage capacities in Vietnam. Petrovietnam also carries out exploration activities in Malaysia, Indonesia, Mongolia and Algeria, and recovers oil in Iraq and Malaysia.

On September 11, 2000 Gazprom and Petrovietnam entered into the Petroleum Contract for Block 112 offshore the Republic of Vietnam. The Contract contemplates searching for, exploring, producing and marketing hydrocarbons.

Preparatory actions are currently underway to launch drilling of appraisal wells 2 and 3. The regulatory documents for the environmental impact assessment have been agreed on with the Natural Resources Ministry of Vietnam. Drilling of appraisal well 2 is due to begin before the end of 2006.