A Gazprom delegation chaired by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee visited the Republic of Serbia.

Within the visit Alexey Miller met with Boris Tadic, President of the Republic of Serbia and Voislav Koshtunitsa, Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia.

The parties discussed issues related to cooperation in the oil and gas sector. Special attention was paid to the prospects of executing the major investment projects in Serbia. The parties specified that Gazprom examined as the integrated comprehensive project the issues relevant to the Company’s participation in privatizing NIS (Naftna Industrija Srbije - Serbian Oil Industry), to development of gas transportation system in Serbia in the frames of the South Stream project and UGS capacities to supply gas to the Republic and transit to third countries. The parties pointed out that relevant project decision making was synchronous with the project execution and must be examined in the form of the comprehensive project.

The parties addressed the prospects on setting up the Russian-Serbian Yugorosgaz joint venture.

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In 2006 Gazprom export supplied Serbia with nearly 2 bcm of Russian gas.

Founded on October 1, 2005 by the Government of the Republic of Serbia within the reorganization of the state-owned firm NIS (Naftna Industrija Srbije - Serbian Oil Industry), Srbijagas is the Serbian state run company dealing with natural gas transmission, distribution and storage in Serbia.

In December 2006 Gazprom, the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Serbian state owned gas company Srbijagas have inked a Memorandum of Understanding. The MoU fixes the mutual interest in constructing a new gas pipeline via the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

The grave economic situation in Yugoslavia between 1995 and 2000 spelled a debt for the Russian natural gas. Russia’s Ministry of Finance and Serbia’s Ministry of Economy have initialed a relevant Intergovernmental Agreement aiming to settle the bulk of Srbijagas’ debt to Gazprom export through the cross-cancellation of the former USSR’s debt to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The Russian-Serbian Yugorosgaz joint venture was established in pursuance of the April 11, 1996 Intergovernmental Agreement for Cooperation in gas pipeline construction on the territory of Yugoslavia for the purpose of engineering, constructing and operating gas pipelines, providing pertinent finance, selling natural gas transported by said pipelines to consumers and transiting gas.