A Gazprom delegation headed by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee today took part in Leipzig in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Verbundnetz Gas.

In his welcoming speech Alexey Miller emphasized that Verbundnetz Gas, a leading gas supplier to Germany, was a time-proven and reliable partner of Gazprom. Successful cooperation in the area of Russian natural gas supplies plays a prominent role in the company’s history. The first supplies were effectuated over 35 years ago. Over this period the relations between the companies have grown into a solid and long-lasting partnership, thus enabling to face the future with confidence and to develop new directions of cooperation such as, for instance, underground gas storage.

Alexey Miller pointed out that Gazprom had always been and remained a reliable natural gas supplier to the European markets, with the German market being the largest one. The Company makes considerable investments in the development of new fields, creation of transmission routes, UGS facilities and gas hubs in Europe for the purpose of increasing security and flexibility of gas supplies to Gazprom’s European partners.

Participating in the celebration was German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. Speaking of the energy cooperation with Russia, the Chancellor gave a high appreciation of the experience gained in the interaction between German companies and Gazprom and underscored the importance of the rapid implementation of the Nord Streamproject to become another important step towards stronger partnership ties in gas supplies.