PURE VICTORY

OJSC “Surgutneftegas” has become a prize winner of the annual prize promoted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation as “The Best Environmental Project of the Year”.

The contest committee examined about 700 applications, and as a result 51 nominees have become the laureates. The Company’s project on gas-turbine power plants construction has been awarded the prize in the “Environmental protection Technologies” category.

The awarding ceremony was held on December 11th in Moscow. While greeting the winners, the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia Yuriy Trutnev commented that the issues concerning the steady development, the reduction of natural resources consumption, as well as the economic energy efficiency growth are considered to be among the state priority targets.

“The prize founded by the Ministry of Natural Resources is a so-called ecological certificate for enterprises. We have chosen those projects to be the best, under which the best available technologies are already used”, emphasized the Minister.

“The fact that the Company’s project on gas-turbine power plants construction has been acknowledged to be one of the best is quite natural. The problem of effective associated petroleum gas utilization is a state paramount task for oil companies, and we pay serious attention to its solution,” said Lubov Malyshkina, Environmental Security and Management Division Head, OJSC “Surgutneftegas”, after the awarding ceremony.

The use of associated petroleum gas as a source for power production is one of the most effective ways of its utilization by virtue of the following reasons: technogenic impact on considerable territories of the Company’s activity is getting weaker - as the construction of multikilometre gas pipelines, compressor stations, high-voltage power lines and substations is being ceased; pollutant emissions released to the atmosphere , including greenhouse gases, are being reduced. The operation of 17 running gas–turbine power plants of the Company provided a 46% reduction of pollutant emissions in 2008. On the whole, the level of associated petroleum gas utilization in our Company for the last years has amounted to 95%, and this year the ratio is approaching to 96%.

We are glad that our activity in this sphere has been highly appreciated on the state level. But it doesn’t mean we should be satisfied with the results achieved – in prospect we’ve got much work to do in relation to the extension of this project scale, as well as other environmental projects implementation leading to the regular ecological safety improving and technogenic negative influence diminishing.

Press Service of OJSC “Surgutneftegas”
Tel.: (3462) 40 10 07, 40 16 60
Tel./fax: (3462) 40 10 18
December 16, 2008