Alexey Miller and Valeri Kokov signed an Agreement on Cooperation between Gazprom and The Kabardino-Balkarian Republic

Today Alexey Miller, Chairman, Gazprom Management Committee, and Valeri Kokov, President, the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic of the Russian Federation, signed a five year cooperation Agreement between Gazprom and the Republic.

This is the first such Agreement signed by the two parties. It will enable Gazprom and the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic establish long-term partnership, work out optimum organizational and economic mechanisms to solve the problem of past due amount redemption for natural gas supplied to the Republic’s consumers.

The Agreement facilitates the resolution of the following urgent issues:

• urban and rural gasification;
• ecology conservation and gas supply facilities safety;
• natural gas saving technologies introduction;
• exploration and production feasibility study completion possibility.

According to the agreement, the government of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic will grant tax and other exemptions to Gazprom in investment, construction and social programs implementation process; in production facilities expansion; in land acquisition and land property state registration; in the process of real estate technical inventory.

In its turn, Gazprom will facilitate stable natural gas supplies to the Republic in terms of the Russian domestic market gas consumption balance, and current payments for the supplies and Kabardino-Balkarian consumers’ past due amounts redemptions.

The Agreement stipulates the possibility for the parties to use medical and leisure facilities, tourist and ski resorts in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic.

Special emphasis is devoted to timely and full payments for gas supplies provided to the Republic. The government of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic will stipulate in its draft budget expenses for current gas supplies that are financed from the republican and local budgets, as well as measures to control these expenses. Moreover, the parties will work out and jointly approve the mechanism for the current budgetary financed consumers’ past due amounts restructuring. The leadership of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic is resolute to solve the region’s “debt” problem.

Information Directorate, OAO Gazprom