OREANDA-NEWS. February 5, 2009. The Board of Directors took into account information on the progress with the Plan of Actions aimed at implementing the Concept for the Gazprom construction business de-monopolization.

The Company’s Management Committee was tasked to further reduce non-competitive procedures within the construction contract awarding system and to secure the competitive placement of orders (no less than 90 per cent of the total) for construction and contracting activities at new sites starting from 2010.

Background:

On February 25, 2003 the Gazprom Board of Directors accepted for execution the Concept for the Company’s construction business de-monopolization, as well as the Plan of Actions for its implementation.

Adoption of measures targeted at Gazprom’s intra-corporate governance structure improvement was one of the steps to execute the Concept provisions. As part of this work, construction units were unbundled from gas production and transmission subsidiaries into existing construction enterprises, and specialized construction subsidiaries of Gazprom were divested as non-core assets.

The Concept implementation entailed the elimination of the construction business monopoly and shaping of a competition-based market of construction services. Concurrently, during 2003-2008 the share of capital contracts per contractor awarded on a non-contest basis did not exceed 25 per cent prescribed by the Concept.

Additionally, the Concept fostered further development of contest procedures in Gazprom and its subsidiary companies, as well as creation of a methodological and legal basis ensuring higher contest efficiency when selecting construction contractors.