OREANDA-NEWS. May 19, 2011. Gazprom Neft announces that it has become the first Russian oil company to complete the sale of Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol. The volume of the deal was 295,000 ERUs, which were purchased at a price set by current market conditions. The purchaser of the ERUs is a large energy company.

The purchaser was chosen as a result of a tender organised by Mitsubishi Corporation, Gazprom Neft’s Japanese partner in the joint implementation project (JIP) at the Ety-Purovsk field, which is being developed under the Kyoto Protocol. Gazprom Neft's second Japanese partner in the JIP, JX Nippon Oil & Energy, ensured the Kyoto Protocol’s methodology was fully adopted at the Ety-Purovsk deposit.

Sberbank of Russia participated in the sale of Gazprom Neft's ERUs, which followed their transfer from the Russian register of carbon units to the Japanese national register of carbon units. The sold ERUs were received during the implementation of the JIP between August to December 2009. Under the JIP at the Ety-Purovsk deposit Gazprom Neft could receive about 3.1 million ERUs (each unit corresponds to one tonne of CO2).

"Projects utilising associated petroleum gas reduce volumes of APG to be burnt as well as emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere. Operating under the Kyoto Protocol through the sale of ERUs reduces the level of human impact on the environment, and also improves the economic performance and effectiveness of APG utilisation projects. Gazprom Neft will continue to look for new opportunities within the scope of the Kyoto Protocol", commented Alexander Dyukov, Gazprom Neft's Chairman of the Management Board.