Led by Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, the Company’s delegation made a business trip to the settlements of Vyazemskoye, Blagodatnoye, Kruglikovo, Pushkino and other regions of the Khabarovsk Krai, and visited the construction facilities in the southern block of the first start-up complex, a part of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas transmission system (GTS).

Alexander Ananenkov visited several production bases and construction sites of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok GTS, railroad stations –points of pipes discharge for the needs of the gas pipeline. Alexander Ananenkov also held an operational meeting in the settlement of Vyazemskoye where a construction camp, a pipe-welding base and a pipe-bending machine are located.

Based on the results of the visit to the Sakhalin Oblast and Khabarovsk Krai, Alexander Ananenkov held a meeting of the coordination center for the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok GTS construction involving heads and experts from Gazprom’s specialized subdivisions, subsidiaries and contractors.

At the meeting Alexander Ananenkov emphasized that the start of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok GTS construction corresponded to the approved schedules. At the same time he stressed the necessity to perform procurement operations ahead of schedule, taking into account concentration of efforts by the contractors and their full readiness. Alexander Ananenkov gave the appropriate assignments, inter alia, with regard to maximum utilization of locally-manufactured products.

Background:

The September 2007 Order by the Russian Federation Industry and Energy Ministry approved the Development Program for an integrated gas production, transportation and supply system in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, taking into account potential gas exports to China and other Asia-Pacific countries (Eastern Gas Program). Gazprom was appointed by the Russian Federation Government as the Program execution coordinator.

Pursuant to the Program it is projected to construct new gas production centers in Eastern Russia: Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yakutia, Kamchatka and Sakhalin.

The Program stipulates the prioritized construction and development of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok GTS to be connected in future with the gas pipeline from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok GTS is being constructed according to the assignment by the Russian Federation Government and the decision of the Gazprom Board of Directors.

The first start-up complex of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok GTS will be brought onstream in the third quarter of 2011. It shall ensure gas supply to Vladivostok and generation capacities commissioning in the Primorsky Krai by the 2012 APEC Summit.

In 2009 it is projected to construct a 300-kilometer-long section of the gas transmission system.