OREANDA-NEWS. NOVATEK (“NOVATEK” and/or the “Company”) announces today that pursuant to the Company's buyback program originally announced on 7 June 2012 and subsequently extended, during the period from 11 through 14 March 2014, 2 476 250 ordinary shares (including in a form of Global Depositary Receipts) were purchased on the open market.

According to NOVATEK's Chairman of the Management Board, Leonid V. Mikhelson, “We have resumed our share buyback program by purchasing our shares on the open market as the current share price significantly diverges from the intrinsic value of the Company. We continue to deliver significant shareholder value through the successful execution of our corporate strategy and the timely delivery of our core projects. The recent sell-off is not linked to the strong underlying fundamentals of the Company, nor does it properly reflect, in our opinion, the growth of our hydrocarbon output and the free cash flow generation of our business. Therefore, we felt is was prudent to resume our share buyback program to support our share price and market value, and provide our firm commitment to deliver the enormous growth potential of NOVATEK”.

On 7 June, 2012, the Company's Board of Directors approved a one-year buyback program in respect of ordinary shares of NOVATEK and/or Global Depositary Receipts representing Shares (each GDR representing 10 Shares) in the aggregate amount of up to 600 million US dollars. On 30 May, 2013, the buyback program was extended until 7 June, 2014, by a decision of the Management Board.

As of 17 March 2014, 9.3 million ordinary shares (including in a form of Global Depositary Receipts) have been purchased on the open market as part of the program implementation.