OREANDA-NEWS. May 21, 2009. The Gazprom Headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Christophe de Margerie, Chief Executive Officer of Total concern.

The meeting discussed the key issues with regard to implementing the first phase of the Shtokman field development project including a plan of actions for a period until the final investment decision is adopted.

The parties gave a positive evaluation to the efforts stepped up by the special purpose company Shtokman Development AG to prepare the front-end engineering design and the feasibility study for the project.

Alexey Miller and Christophe de Margerie also discussed the status and the prospects for deepening the mutually beneficial cooperation in LNG marketing and sales.

Particular attention was paid to the present status of the global hydrocarbon market including the pricing issues. A unanimous opinion was expressed that the current oil prices didn’t reflect its fair value and hampered new projects development.

Background

On July 13, 2007 Gazprom and Total signed the Framework Agreement on the Main Terms of cooperation in the development of the first phase of the Shtokman gas condensate field. Gazprom and StatoilHydro signed a similar Agreement on 25 October 2007.

Under the Agreements, February 2008 saw the setting up of a special purpose company, Shtokman Development AG. Gazprom holds 51 per cent in the company’s equity capital, Total and StatoilHydro hold 25 and 24 per cent respectively.