 The main natural gas producers in Russia are gas companies Gazprom, Novatek, Itera, Northgas and Rospan, and vertically integrated oil and gas companies Surgutneftegaz, TNK-BP, Rosneft and LUKOIL.Majority state-owned Gazprom has a monopoly of natural gas pipelines and has the exclusive right to export natural gas, granted by the Federal Law ""On Gas Export"", which came into force on 20 July 2006.Gazprom also has control over all gas pipelines out of Central Asia, and thus controls access to the European market.