Shorthand record of speech delivered by Alexey Miller at meeting marking Oil and Gas Industry Workers Day

Esteemed colleagues,

We are now starting our celebratory conference call. This broadcast is from St. Petersburg, from the headquarters of Gazprom in the Lakhta Center.

As you know, at its height of 462 meters, the Lakhta Center is the tallest building in Europe. The skyscraper has already received a great deal of prestigious awards and prizes in the field of architecture and construction, For instance, it was awarded as the world's best tall building of 400+ meters high and the world's most innovative and technologically sophisticated building.

Dear friends,

I would like to wish you a happy professional holiday in connection with the upcoming Oil and Gas Industry Workers Day.

The work in Russia's fuel and energy complex means, first of all, assuming a great responsibility. And Gazprom, as always, performs this work successfully and appropriately.

Every day, on a round-the-clock basis, we provide our consumers with the required energy sources: we bring gas, electricity, and heat to people's homes and the country's enterprises. 

The key goal currently set for Gazprom by Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, is to achieve a 100 per cent technically possible gas grid coverage in the entire territory of the Russian Federation by 2030. And we are doing this work very quickly. Since the beginning of 2024, we have already built more than 300 inter-settlement and intra-settlement gas pipelines. It means that nine new gas infrastructure expansion facilities appear on the gas map of Russia every week.

Without any doubt, access to gas is a great benefit for the development of the industrial and social sectors. But what is more important is that it gives people the possibility of improving their living conditions, first of all, of course, in rural areas.

We see that the additional gas grid expansion program enjoys a wide demand. As of today, more than one million contracts concluded with individuals for bringing pipeline gas to the boundaries of their land plots have been executed. We are intensifying the work to get boiler houses of social facilities connected to gas. This year, Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, has made a decision to extend the additional gas grid expansion program to cover the households located in gardeners' non-commercial partnerships.

The number of new consumers in Russia keeps growing. And, of course, we are very happy about it. The domestic demand for the Company's gas supplies is growing. And it is growing at a fast pace. Every month of this summer, we have been setting new records in terms of supplies from Russia's Unified Gas Supply System, including records for daily supplies related to the whole summer period. Just recently, we hit an all-time high for summer daily gas supplies from the UGSS to our domestic consumers, namely, 701.8 million cubic meters of gas. I cordially congratulate everyone on this achievement.

I would like to note that the records were set in summer, i.e. in the period when the preparations for winter are being made, preventive maintenance and repair works are being carried out and gas is being injected into underground storages. In parallel with all these activities and against the background of the increased demand observed in the summer period, we provide our consumers with gas to the full extent required by them. It shows that our performance in the domestic market is highly reliable.

Just as reliable are our gas exports. We are developing cooperation with the countries that have emerged as the new centers of economic development.

Our key partners are the largest consumers in the Asia-Pacific region. First of all it is, of course, China. We are consistently stepping up our gas supplies to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline. In eight months, we increased our supplies by 37 per cent versus the same period of last year. What is more, Gazprom has broken the records for daily gas supplies to China seven times this year.

In 2025, we will bring the Power of Siberia gas pipeline to its design capacity, i.e. to the maximum contractual capacity of 38 billion cubic meters of gas.

We implement new projects, too. For instance, gas supplies to China via the Far Eastern route will be launched in late January 2027. The construction of the gas trunkline is going strictly on schedule.

We are also expanding cooperation with Central Asian countries. Energy consumption in these countries is growing at a very high pace. The economic and social development of these republics is very intensive. And this offers new opportunities for us. In January-August alone, i.e. in eight months, we doubled our supplies to that region.

And today, the requests for gas supplies to Uzbekistan are fulfilled by Gazprom via the Central Asia – Center gas trunkline at the maximum level technically possible. At the level of the winter period. This is the level of our supplies to Uzbekistan that we provided last winter, when the republic experienced extreme cold snaps.

Special mention should be made of our activities in Kyrgyzstan. Ten years have passed since the foundation of Gazprom Kyrgyzstan. We can already sum up the first results, and they are extremely encouraging. A huge scope of works has been performed to retrofit the gas transmission system of Kyrgyzstan. New gas transmission facilities have been built. It is also important to note that Gazprom Kyrgyzstan has implemented socially significant projects in Kyrgyzstan, which is a usual practice for Gazprom.

The reliability of gas supplies has been enhanced significantly. I would like to highlight that the gas grid coverage across Kyrgyzstan has doubled. These figures are very good; this is a very commendable result.

I would like to thank the team of Gazprom Kyrgyzstan for the results achieved and for their excellent, high-quality work. And I would also like to personally thank Bolot Abildaev, Director General of Gazprom Kyrgyzstan. Thank you so much!

Gas consumption in Kyrgyzstan continues to grow. At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, we have signed new long-term contracts with the company, and there is a great deal of work ahead of us. I wish Gazprom Kyrgyzstan further success.

Conventional energy resources will remain the core, basic element of the global energy balance both currently and in the long term, we are absolutely sure about that. And our partners are aware of this, because natural gas is an affordable and reliable source of clean energy, a guarantee of stable and reliable energy supplies.

According to preliminary data, in the first eight months of 2024, the global demand for natural gas increased by almost 55 billion cubic meters versus the same period of 2023. At the same time, gas consumption in Europe, on the contrary, continues to decline. The volumes of gas consumption in the European Union and in the United Kingdom continue to drop; during eight months of this year it has already decreased by 10 billion cubic meters as compared to the same period of last year.

Gazprom continues to implement major investment projects with a clear understanding of the world trends, namely the increasing demand for gas in Russia and the growing demand in the countries of the global South, most notably in the Asia-Pacific region.

We are developing our main, flagship production project: the Yamal gas production center. The Company actively works on implementing the Eastern Gas Program. We are working on developing two new gas production centers: Yakutia and Irkutsk. And of course, we continue developing the Power of Siberia project.

In 2024, we launched the construction of the Belogorsk – Khabarovsk gas pipeline as part of the Eastern Gas Program. The gas pipeline will connect the Power of Siberia and Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas pipelines. 

The Belogorsk – Khabarovsk gas pipeline is, as we perfectly understand, just the first step to connect the gas transmission system in the west of Russia with the gas transmission system in the eastern part of the country. Without any doubt, the implementation of these plans will improve the reliability and stability of gas supplies to consumers across Russia. It will further strengthen the foundation for future gas infrastructure expansion in Russian regions.

Another crucial area we are working on is processing. We develop this sector in order to provide the national economy with products that are highly sought after in a vast number of industries. For these industries, our products are the basis for their further production cycles. 

We have already launched the fourth production train at the Amur Gas Processing Plant and continue building gas processing facilities in the northwestern part of Russia, in Ust-Luga. The construction works are going strictly on schedule.

Our sub-holdings, Gazprom Neft and Gazprom Energoholding, keep up with the parent company.

This year, Gazprom Neft started commercial production of hydrocarbons at Block 3А of the Achimov deposits at the Urengoyskoye field of Gazprom and commenced large-scale pre-development works at the Chona cluster in Eastern Siberia.

Among the key projects of Gazprom Energoholding noteworthy is, of course, the construction of the Yuzhno-Yakutsk power plant. The facility is very important for the Russian Railways network. The power plant will participate in electricity supplies to a strategically important railway polygon located in that region. The construction of a power plant like that – and, accordingly, the development of railroads in eastern Russia – became possible due to our legendary Power of Siberia gas trunkline.

Gazprom's activities extend beyond creating new production facilities. The Company pays particular attention to social development in Russian regions. For many years already, pursuant to the instruction of Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, we have been implementing a large-scale program, Gazprom for Children. It provides for the creation of sports and social facilities, as well as educational institutions. Today, summing up the interim results of the program, we can say that we have already built 2,135 facilities. 

We continue creating new sports facilities and social infrastructure facilities. For instance, we are building the Academy of Table Tennis in Orenburg. In the coming days, the Center for water sports will be opened in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. 

And it is very important to note that a new school will open its doors shortly in the town of Svobodny in the Amur Region, near the Amur Gas Processing Plant of Gazprom. I am sure that the school will be a good starting point for our youth! 

Dear co-workers, dear friends,

Gazprom's projects are a reliable basis for the development of our country for decades to come. Our work is an enormous contribution to the energy security of Russia and to the protection of the country's national interests. 

And, of course, the cornerstone of the work is the efforts of hundreds of thousands of our employees. These are the efforts of a professional, tight-knit and strong team focused on the fulfillment of the tasks of national significance. And we can be rightfully proud of the results of this work. 

Of course, our professional holiday is the time when we, as always, point out that the winter season is coming and all the preparatory measures and planned activities for the autumn/winter period must be performed in due time. As is usual for us at Gazprom, and no other way.

The most important thing here is that we are 100 per cent sure we will do this. As we have always done. That is why Gazprom is always 100 per cent ready to ensure reliable gas supplies during the autumn/winter peak. 

Dear friends,

I would like to once again wish you a happy professional holiday! I wish you good health, happiness and prosperity! I wish you every success in your work in these challenging times. I am convinced that we will successfully and in an exemplary fashion address all new challenges, tasks and goals that are currently facing us. 

And, as always, according to the tradition we have at Gazprom, in conclusion we say, let us go on with our work!