OREANDA-NEWS. December 6, 2012. JSC RusHydro (ticker symbol: MICEX, LSE: HYDR; OTCQX: RSHYY) announces that it has signed a cooperation agreement (acting on behalf of its subsidiary, RAO Energy Systems of the East) with Rosneft to supply gas and oil products to generating facilities of the Far East Federal District. The document was signed by Evgeny Dod, Chairman of the Management Board of RusHydro, and Igor Sechin, President, Chairman of the Management Board of Rosneft.

The agreement aims to increase reliability and safety of energy supplies, containment of tariff growth and support generating assets in the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia.

The companies intend to expand their cooperation in terms of current supplies of natural gas. Rosneft plans to develop gas production centers in the Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk, Primorsky, Kamchatka, Irkutsk and Sakhalin regions and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) within the framework of the “State program of creation a unified system for production and transportation of gas and gas supplies in Eastern Siberia and the Far East considering possible export of gas to China and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region” and to consider the possibility of supplying gas to fossil fuel power plants of RusHydro.

To implement the development strategy of Rosneft’s own gas transportation system the company decided to acquire the gas pipelines owned by RusHydro.

According to the document Rosneft confirms that its priority is to provide the companies of RusHydro Group with oil products in terms of “northern supplies”. Both companies will take all necessary steps to minimize the prices of oil products for the consumers of the Far East.

“The cooperation agreement between RusHydro and Rosneft is an important step on the path to further development of the Russian Far East. Earlier, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed the decree on contribution of budget funds to RusHydro’s share capital aimed to finance the construction of new power units. We believe that cooperation with the largest oil and gas company in Russia is fully in line with our strategy in the region”, commented Evgeny Dod, Chairman of the Management Board of RusHydro and Chairman of the Board of Directors of RAO Energy Systems of the East.