The board of directors approved the sale of a 24.9% stake in its subsidiary Gazprombank to another of its subsidiaries, Gazfond pension fund.
Gazprom also approved Friday the purchase of a 19.87% stake in Moscow electricity producer Mosenergo [RTS: MSNG] from Gazfond.
Following the board of directors' decision, corresponding amendments will be introduced to the company's 2006 financial plan.
In another move, Gazprom has approved an increase in its stake in Armenia's national natural gas monopoly Armrosgazprom from 45% to 58%.
Gazprom will buy Armrosgazprom's additional share issue.
Gazprom's board said earlier it is going to discuss its European expansion strategy in light of Turkey's growing importance as a conduit for Russian gas supplies to Europe.
Gazprom, which already pumps gas to Turkey through the Blue Stream pipeline across the Black Sea, is considering the construction of a new pipeline that will use Turkey as a transit point for exports to the EU.
However, Turkey clearly favors a project to build a natural gas pipeline from Turkey to Austria via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, but bypassing Russia. The $6 billion Nabucco pipeline, which will be completed by 2011, will have an estimated capacity of 30 billion cubic meters a year, and is seen as a rival to Gazprom's Blue Stream-2, which will have a capacity of 8 billion cubic meters and a commissioning date no sooner than 2012.
Turkey could potentially use gas exports from Azerbaijan through a proposed link - the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline - which will connect Turkey to the Central Asian country's Shah Deniz gas field.
The Gazprom board approved Thursday a draft investment program for 2007 worth 531.78 billion rubles ($19.77 billion).
The draft envisions capital investment at 360.56 billion rubles ($13.4 billion), and long-term financial contributions at 171.22 billion rubles ($6.37 billion).
Gazprombank is the third-largest Russian bank by assets. Gazprom holds an 87.5% stake in the bank. The bank said October 5 that its net profit, according to Russian Accounting Standards, declined 74% in July-September 2006, quarter-on-quarter, to 1.37 billion rubles ($51 million) from 5.18 billion rubles ($193 million).
The bank said the lower figure was due to interest payments on its Eurobonds in September and advance profit tax payments, as well as tax payments in June for the second quarter.
