Today Paris hosted a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom Management Committee and Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France.

The parties addressed the issues surrounding Russian gas supply to France, potential deepening of cooperation between Russia and France in the oil and gas sector as well as the work progress as part of stage one of the Shtokman project.

The parties highly appreciated the progress with the bilateral interaction in the energy sector as well as noted that further close cooperation between Gazprom and French companies was a key factor for European energy supply security. The parties also emphasized that vertical integration as a business model in the energy sector was the most sustainable and secure.

In the course of the visit to France a meeting was also held with Jean Francois Cirelli, Chief Executive Officer of Gaz de France.

The meeting addressed the outlook for further bilateral cooperation.

Reference:

Gazprom supplies around 29 per cent of gas imports to France. In 2007 Gazprom export provided France with 10 bcm of gas.

On December 19, 2006, Gazprom and Gaz de France entered into the Agreement to extend till 2030 the existing contracts for Russian natural gas supply to France.

On July 13, 2007, Gazprom and Total signed the Framework Agreement on the major terms of cooperation when developing stage one of the Shtokman gas and condensate field. A similar Agreement between Gazprom and StatoilHydro was signed on October 25, 2007.

Under the Agreements, February 2008 saw the setting up of a special purpose company, Shtokman Development AG. The company’s shareholding structure is as follows: Gazprom – 51 per cent, Total – 25 per cent, StatoilHydro – 24 per cent.