Today as part of Gazprom delegation’s business trip to Salekhard, Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Yuri Neyolov, Governor of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YaNAO) signed an Agreement of Cooperation for 2010.

The Agreement reflects the parties’ strategic interests in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug with regard to the Comprehensive Development Program for the Yamal Peninsula and the adjacent offshore areas and pursues the objective of furthering the traditional partnership relation between Gazprom and the YaNAO Administration.

The documents sets the mutual obligations in the taxation, pricing and social policies, natural resources management, as well as in property and land relations, capital construction and transportation.

In 2010 the parties will continue making efforts to transfer the ownership of the housing resources, socio-cultural and utility facilities to the municipal entities of the Okrug.

The YaNAO Administration will assist Gazprom and its subsidiaries in the following areas:

- geological investigation of subsurface resources, exploration and production of hydrocarbons;

- survey and construction activities in the Okrug;

- facilitation of the land allocation procedure by the local authorities.

Gazprom and its subsidiaries will secure reliable supplies of natural gas and hydrocarbon feedstock products to the regional consumers.

Under the Agreement, Gazprom will preferably employ local qualified personnel, including representatives of indigenous minorities, who are trained in the vocations and expertise needed by the Company.

Background:

The Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YaNAO) is Gazprom’s major gas production province, where the Company extracts over 90 per cent of natural gas (around 83 per cent of the total domestic gas production).

The principal document regulating cooperation between Gazprom and the YaNAO is the General Agreement. As an addendum to the document the parties annually enter into Agreements of Cooperation. They have also signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, Accords on Gasification and Cooperation in the natural resources exploitation area.

In 2008 Gazprom supplied the YaNAO with over 1.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas. This year’s gas supplies are projected to exceed 1.7 billion cubic meters.

The average gasification level of the Okrug accounts for 51.8 per cent (versus 62 per cent throughout Russia). Between 2007 and 2008 Gazprom invested RUB 240 million in regional gasification. These funds were used to design and launch the construction of five gas laterals. In 2009 Gazprom will provide the YaNAO with RUB 100 million to continue the construction of the gas laterals.