Led by Stanislav Tsygankov, Head of the Company’s International Business Department, a Gazprom delegation paid a working visit to the Republic of Venezuela.

As part of the visit the delegation attended the operating area in Punto-Fijo including the drilling platform at Urumaco 1 Block in the Gulf of Venezuela. Meetings were held with the leadership of UrdanetaGazprom – 1 S.A. joint-stock company and Ruben Figuera, General Manger of the Offshore Joint Ventures of state-run company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.

The parties discussed the status of drilling works at Urumaco 1 Block, a package of proposals for increasing the economic efficiency of the Rafael Urdaneta project as well as the current status of the Blankilla Este y Tortuga and Ayacucho-3 projects.

Within the visit a meeting of the member companies of the Blankilla Este y Tortuga project took place, at which Gazprom’s experts produced the provisional estimates of hydrocarbon reserves at these blocks. The meeting participants confirmed their interest in the project and came to an accommodation in March 2009 to prepare an Agreement aimed at its further implementation and to identify an operator for the project.

Background:

Being the second-largest in the Western Hemisphere after the USA, Venezuela’s proven natural gas reserves account for 4.1 trillion cubic meters. The annual volume of gas production (mainly the associated petroleum gas) in Venezuela is about 30 billion cubic meters. Venezuela’s proven oil reserves amount to 11.2 billion tons (7 per cent of the global total), with Maracaibo, Falcon, Oriental, Apure being the largest fields. The USA is the major importer of Venezuelan oil.

In August 2005 Gazprom was proclaimed the winner of a tender for Phase A of the Rafael Urdaneta project and was awarded the relevant licenses for natural gas exploration and development at the Urumaco 1 and Urumaco 2 blocks in the Gulf of Venezuela. In accordance with the bidding rules for Urumaco 1 and Urumaco 2, Gazprom set up two joint-stock companies UrdanetaGazprom – 1, S.A. and UrdanetaGazprom – 2, S.A. The forecasted natural gas reserves of Urumaco 1 and Urumaco 2 blocks average 100 billion cubic meters.

At the moment stage two of the project’s geological exploration is in progress stipulating drilling one exploratory well at each block. In November 2008 well drilling at Urumaco 1 Block was initiated.

In September 2008 Gazprom and PDVSA signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Blanquilla Este y Tortuga project embracing natural gas exploration and production offshore Venezuela, its supply to the domestic market, as well as its liquefaction and export.