"Gazprom has made a decision on the choice of a foreign partner to implement the initial phase of Shtokman field development, and named French Total S.A. as such. A respective agreement is to be signed in Moscow tomorrow," declared Alexey Miller, Chairman of OAO Gazprom Management Committee.

"The initial field development phase envisions production of 23.7 bcm of natural gas with the startup of gas supply via the pipeline due 2013, and liquefied natural gas production - 2014. To organize engineering, financing and construction activities within the framework of the project, a special-purpose company is to be established, and subsequently it will become the owner of the initial phase infrastructure. The stake of Gazprom in the new company's authorized capital will be 75 percent, while that of Total will be 25 percent," said Alexey Miller.

He noted, that "there exists an opportunity to include one more or several foreign partners with an additional stake up to 24 percent, due to possible reduction of the Gazprom involvement. In any case, Gazprom will retain control over no less than 51 percent of the shares in the special-purpose company as well as 100 per cent of the shares in the company - owner of the field license, and will also be the owner of the whole amount of hydrocarbons to be extracted".

Alexey Miller mentioned that "the agreements we have reached represent another crucial step in the development of mutually beneficial cooperation and partnership between Gazprom and the world's largest energy companies".