Today, Alexander Ananenkov, Acting Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee has moderated a meeting at the Gazprom Headquarters on the Nord Stream project execution.

Attending the meeting were heads and specialists of the core business units of the Company as well as Yamalgazinvest, Gazkomplektimpex and Giprospetsgaz.

The meeting noted that the Nord Stream project had a strategic significance for Gazprom and occupied a key place in the Company’s export policy. The project execution will enable to decrease the cost of Russian gas transit and exclude possible risks providing maximally reliable supply for consumers of Western Europe.

The participants discussed the current state of work for the project. The meeting specified that to be utilized amongst other things for gas supply via Nord Stream the Gryazovets-Vyborg gas pipeline was being built on schedule. Special attention was paid to the need to synchronize designing and construction activities of the Gryazovets-Vyborg and Nord Stream gas pipelines.

As a result of the meeting Gazprom core business units were tasked with further working to secure efficient execution of the Nord Stream project.

Reference:

The Nord Stream gas pipeline is a fundamentally new route for Russian gas exports to Europe.

In order to connect Nord Stream to UGSS, a new gas pipeline (917 km) will be built between the towns of Gryazovets and Vyborg on the territory of the Vologda and Leningrad Oblasts. The first joint of the Gryzovets-Vyborg gas pipeline was welded on December 9, 2005 in the Vologda Oblast, Babaevo.

The starting point of the Nord Stream sea section (1,198 km) will run across the Baltic seabed to Greifswald on the German coast with a possible branch to Sweden. From Greifswald the pipeline will pass through the territory of Germany and the Netherlands to Bacton in the Great Britain.

To be commissioned in 2010, the 1st line of Nord Stream will have a throughput capacity of 27.5 bcm per year. The 2nd line is projected to double Nord Stream’s throughput capacity to 55 bcm per year.

Gas from UGSS will be the resource base for gas deliveries via Nord Stream.

The German companies BASF AG and E.ON AG are the partners of Gazprom in the Nord Stream project, with which the in-principle Agreement to construct the Nord Stream gas pipeline was signed in Berlin on September 8, 2005. Pursuant to the Agreement, the partners set up the German-Russian Nord Stream AG joint venture, which is 51 per cent owned by Gazprom and 24.5 per cent owned by BASF AG and E.ON AG each. Under the accords achieved between the parties, other companies might also be invited to join the project.