Today the Gazprom Headquarters hosted a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Dr. Martin Vukovich, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Austria to Russia.

The parties discussed further cooperation in the oil and gas sector. In particular, they noted the importance of actuation of Russian-Austrian interaction within the South Stream project. The meeting participants agreed that South Stream was remarkable for its large scale and significance for consumers among all the existing European gas pipelines and those being projected. In addition, Alexey Miller and Martin Vukovich expressed their confidence that South Stream would make a reasonable contribution in ensuring the energy safety of the European continent, including Austria.

Background:

Gazprom is investigating the possibility of constructing a pipeline across the Black Sea to the South and Central Europe – South Stream project – to diversify natural gas export routes.

The projected capacity of the offshore section of the gas pipeline makes up 63 billion cubic meters per annum.

In order to construct the onshore section of the project abroad, intergovernmental agreements have been made with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece and Slovenia. A similar intergovernmental agreement is to be signed with Austria.