GAZPROM GUARANTEES REGULAR GAS SUPPLIES TO ARMENIA

ARKA
Dec 26, 2008

YEREVAN, December 26. /ARKA/. Russian gas supplies to Armenia are
regular and stable, ArmRosGasProm Director General Karen Karapetyan
said on Friday.

"Armenia has no problems with Russian gas supplies," he said, adding
the Russian gas transits through Georgia work properly, though Russia
does not supply Georgia with gas.

According to ArmRosGasProm’s press service, Russian gas supplies
to Armenia rose 11% to over 2bln cubic meters between January and
November 2008, with 1.874bln cubic meters of gas consumed in the
country during the past 11 months.

Monopolist in Armenia’s gas supply market, ArmRosGasProm CJSC was
established in 1997.

Gazprom OJCS and the RA Ministry of Energy used to hold 45% of the
company’s shares each, with Itera Oil and Gas Company owning 10%
of ArmRosGasProm.

After implementing two of the three planned stages of its investment
program (and buying extra shares of ArmRosGasProm in 2006 and 2008)
Gazprom became 75.55% shareholder of the company, with Itera now
holding 4.4% of ArmRosGasProm’s shares.