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Articel from the Newspaper The Moscow Times (February 26, 2002)

Itera Gets U.S. Aid for Yamal Project

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency has given the Itera Group an $868,000 grant to finance a feasibility study for developing the Achimovsk gas condensate beds in the Urengoi region of the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district. Jennifer Snyder, the TDA's director for Russia, and Itera president Igor Makarov signed the paperwork for the grant at a ceremony in Moscow on Monday, Interfax reported. The signing was attended by the senior advisor to the U.S. State Department for energy development in the Caspian region, Steve Mann. The TDA works closely with the U.S. Commerce Department, the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. to advance U.S. business interests abroad. U.S. company BSI Industries was awarded the contract to develop the feasibility study for the $680 million Urengoi project. Makarov said the study would be completed by the end of the year and the project would be launched in 2003. Makarov said Itera had already invested $10 million to develop the Achimovsk deposits, which contain an estimated 350 billion cubic meters of gas and 117 million tons of gas condensate. Makarov said Itera would exploit the deposits through a joint venture with Gazprom, Achimneftegaz, which is 49 percent owned by Itera and 51 percent by Gazprom.