OREANDA-NEWS. February 26, 2010. OAO NOVATEK (“NOVATEK” and/or the “Company”) today announced that it has increased its participation in the share capital of OOO Oiltechprodukt-Invest, OOO Petra Invest-M and OOO Tailiksneftegas through the acquisition of an additional 26% participation interest in each company from United Capital Partners Oil and Gas Private Equity Fund, L.P., a member of the family of funds managed by United Capital Partners. The acquisition increases NOVATEK’s participation interest in these companies to 51%, which provides the Company with both corporate and operational control of their activities.

The aforementioned companies hold the exploration licenses to Sredniy Chaselskiy, Severo Russkiy, Zapadno-Tazovskiy, Anomalniy and Severo-Yamsoveyskiy license areas while NOVATEK’s wholly owned subsidiaries, NOVATEK-Tarkosaleneftegas and NOVATEK-Yurkharovneftegas, are acting as operators for the exploration works at the license areas. As a result of ongoing exploration work, NOVATEK discovered the Zapadno-Chaselskoye field within the Sredniy Chaselskiy license area, and plans to continue conducting further exploratory works at the other license areas.

The license areas are located in the Yamal Nenets Autonomous Region and are in close proximity to NOVATEK’s existing fields and infrastructure.

The increase in the Company’s participation in the license areas is consistent with its strategy to grow its resource base through exploration and development of greenfield projects.