Today in Amsterdam Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Paul van Gelder, Chairman of the Executive Board and President of Gasunie inked a document stipulating cooperation between the companies in exploring the possibilities for the Nord Stream gas pipeline expansion as well as setting up other infrastructure projects in Europe aimed at providing uninterrupted supplies to Northwestern Europe and the UK.

The signing ceremony was held in the presence of Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation and Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

“We see the potential of Nord Stream expansion. The new string can be oriented to the new markets and will for the first time connect Russia and the UK. We see a keen interest of the British partners to the project. The construction of the fourth string should be based on a long-term contract for gas supply to the UK,” said Alexey Miller.

“Today jointly with Gazprom we are making another crucial step to ensure reliable and affordable energy supplies both for the Europe and for the Netherlands in particular, while, at the same time, adding to the carbon dioxide sequestering. Natural gas is a perfect partner of renewable energy. Gas and gas infrastructure have unique properties enabling to maintain the balance between energy consumption on one hand and unpredictable supplies of renewable energy sources on the other hand,” said Paul van Gelder.

Background

Nord Stream is a fundamentally new route for Russian gas export to Europe. Running under the Baltic Sea from the Portovaya Bay (near Vyborg) to the German coast (near Greifswald) the two-string gas pipeline stretches 1,224 kilometers and has the total design capacity of 55 billion cubic meters.

The Nord Stream project is implemented by Nord Stream AG joint venture. The stakes in Nord Stream AG are currently distributed as follows: Gazprom holds 51 per cent, Wintershall Holding and E.ON Ruhrgas – 15.5 per cent each, Gasunie and GDF Suez – 9 per cent each.

In October 2012 the Nord Stream AG shareholders committee examined the preliminary results of the feasibility studies for building the third and the fourth strings of Nord Stream and came to the conclusion that their construction was economically and technically feasible.

Gasunie is a European gas infrastructure company, whose network ranks among the largest high pressure gas pipeline grids in Europe with the total annual gas throughput of approximately 125 billion cubic meters. Gasunie's network consists of over 15,000 kilometers of pipeline in the Netherlands and northern Germany and approximately 1,300 gas receiving stations. The company also offers gas and LNG storage services.