Gazprom Administration establishes new Department
to coordinate South Stream project execution

13.01.2010

A new structural unit, the Project Management Department, has been established by Gazprom.

The new department is in charge of coordinating the engineering and construction activities as part of the South Stream project, in particular:

• expanding the gas transmission capacities in Russia required for ensuring gas delivery from the Unified Gas Supply System via the South Stream gas pipeline;

• constructing the offshore section of the gas pipeline;

• upgrading the existing gas transmission infrastructure facilities and building the new ones in the countries participating in the South Stream project execution.

The Project Management Department will report directly to the Gazprom Management Committee Chairman.

Leonid Chugunov has been appointed Head of the Department.

“The large-scale South Stream project, being of special importance for increasing the reliability of gas supply to Europe and engaging a big number of foreign partners, requires consolidation of Gazprom’s efforts for prompt execution of the most prioritized project of the Company. I am sure the immense experience and credibility of Leonid Chugunov will help build an optimal and efficient structure of the project management,” said Alexey Miller.

Background

Leonid Semyonovich Chugunov was born in 1956 in the city of Grozny.

He graduated from the Grozny Oil Institute. He has a PhD in Engineering.

Leonid Chugunov has been working in the gas industry for over 30 years now.

He has a long track record with Nadymgazprom where he held a range of positions from an oil and gas production operator to Director General (from 1993 to 1998).

From 1998 to 2009 he headed Yamalgazinvest.

Leonid Chugunov is a member of the Academy of Technological Sciences. He was awarded the Russian Federation Science and Technology Prize (1998) and the Russian Federation Government Science and Technology Prize (2002), as well as the Order of Honor.

For the purpose of diversifying natural gas export routes Gazprom is planning to construct a gas pipeline across the Black Sea to South European and Central European countries – the South Stream project.

The offshore section of the gas pipeline is to be laid on the Black Sea bed from the Beregovaya compressor station on the Russian coast to the Bulgarian coast. The total length of the offshore section will be around 900 kilometers, with the maximum depth exceeding 2 kilometers.

The capacity of the offshore section of South Stream will make up 63 billion cubic meters per annum.

In order to construct the onshore section abroad, intergovernmental agreements were made with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece and Slovenia. A similar intergovernmental agreement is to be signed with Austria. Italy is another target market for the South Stream project.

Information Directorate, OAO Gazprom