The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company's Management Committee and Eizo Kobayashi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Itochu Corporation.

The parties discussed the status of joint projects as well as possible ways and areas of the cooperation expansion.

In particular, the meeting summed up the interim results of the joint efforts within the LNG plant construction project near Vladivostok, discussed possible cooperation within the South Stream project and further steps needed to implement a gas chemicals production project in Salavat (Bashkortostan).

Background

With its scarce domestic energy resources, Japan is the world's fourth largest energy consumer. Nearly 80 billion cubic meters of gas are annually consumed in the country. The share of gas in the Japanese energy mix stands at 14 per cent. Almost 100 per cent of the consumed gas is imported in the form of LNG, making Japan the world's top LNG importer.

In January 2011 Gazprom and the Japanese State Agency for Natural Resources and Energy signed the Agreement of Cooperation envisaging preparation of a joint feasibility study on the options for natural gas use near Vladivostok as well as for natural gas and gas chemicals transmission from the Vladivostok region and their sales among potential customers in Asia-Pacific.

A consortium of Japanese companies (ITOCHU, JAPEX, MARUBENI, INPEX, CIECO) called JAPAN FAR EAST GAS Co., Ltd. was established with the assistance of the Japanese Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. The consortium participants are to prepare the feasibility study on behalf of the Japanese party.

In April 2011 in furtherance of the above mentioned document Gazprom and JAPAN FAR EAST GAS Co., Ltd. signed the Agreement on the joint feasibility study development for an LNG plant near Vladivostok. The study results were submitted as a presentation to the Gazprom senior management and to the Japanese Agency for Natural Resources and Energy on February 20, 2012.