France, Russia to Cooperate on Natural Gas Project

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Russia's second-largest independent natural gas producer Novatek announced that it has reached an agreement with TOTAL from France to jointly carry out natural gas projects in Russia and internationally.

According to the agreement, the companies will form a joint committee to decide on the Russian capital and international capital in natural gas and condensate oil projects.

This cooperation was approved unanimously by all the board members at Russia's largest natural gas company, Gazprom, which is one of Novatek's key shareholders.

In August 2005, TOTAL had submitted an application to the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russian (FAS) regarding the purchasing of Novatek. FAS postponed the decision on the $1 billion proposal several times.

Later on that year, Novatek raised $966 million from its initial public offering, equaling 19% of its registered capital.

In 2006, Novatek's net profit dropped 14.7% compared with the same period in 2005, to $519 million. In the first half of 2007, Novatek's net profit increased 18.7% compared with the same period in 2006, reaching $345.8 million.

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