THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Gazprom: "Substantial Step" Made In Talks With Shell: “MOSCOW -- OAO Gazprom and Royal Dutch/Shell Group are still in talks on a possible swap of natural gas assets, the Russian state-controlled gas monopoly said late Thursday.” (ShellNews.net) 8 April 05

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

April 8, 2005

MOSCOW -- OAO Gazprom (GSPBEX.RS) and Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD, SC) are still in talks on a possible swap of natural gas assets, the Russian state-controlled gas monopoly said late Thursday.

Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller and Royal Dutch/Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer discussed Gazprom taking a stake in the Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project in Russia's far east and Shell 's participation in Gazprom's Zapolyarnoye gas field, according to a press release.

"Today, we made a substantial step in expanding long-term cooperation between Gazprom and Shell by using the advantages of both companies," both Miller and van der Veer were quoted as saying.

The Vedomosti daily on Friday quoted Gazprom's press service as saying a deal had already been struck, while the paper quoted a Shell spokesman as saying talks were still ongoing.

A Gazprom spokesman couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The two companies have been discussing such an asset swap for several years.

Company Web site: http://www.gazprom.ru

-By Anna Raff, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 095 974 80 55; anna.raff@dowjones.com

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