OREANDA-NEWS. June 21, 2010. Within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2010 Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom and Gerard Mestrallet, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GDF SUEZ signed in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in the energy saving and energy efficiency areas.

The Memorandum was signed in furtherance of the previously reached agreements on setting up a Russian-French joint venture, Ecoservices.

According to the Memorandum, the parties agreed to use the venture’s resources when cooperating in the energy efficiency area. In particular, the companies will study the possibility of joint participation in pilot projects implementation in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Obninsk, and of energy services provision to French and other foreign companies operating in Russia.

“So far, among the top-priority objectives set forth by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are increasing energy efficiency and introducing energy saving technologies. I am sure that a combination of unique experience, knowledge and state-of-the-art developments featured by Gazprom and GDF SUEZ, as the world’s leading energy companies, has a huge potential for fuel and energy saving in our countries,” said Alexey Miller.

“Energy services are a response to the overwhelming need to optimize energy consumption. Energy efficiency and curbing emissions of all kinds have become indisputable goals to remain competitive. GDF SUEZ will share its know-how by providing innovative solutions especially in district cooling and heating, local energy production infrastructures like cogeneration or renewable energies. We are glad to enter this new promising partnership with Gazprom,” noted Gerard Mestrallet.
Background

It is natural for long-term sci-tech cooperation between Gazprom and GDF SUEZ to result in setting up a joint venture, Ecoservices. In June 2010 the first general meeting of the shareholders (Gazprom promgaz, GDF SUEZ ENERGY SERVICES and GDF INTERNATIONAL) was held. A trilateral agreement was signed at the meeting to incorporate Ecoservices.

At present, all the required approvals have been received and the joint venture registration procedure is currently underway in compliance with the Russian legislation. The company will provide energy saving and energy efficiency services in Russia using state-of-the-art technologies and equipment.

The cooperation between Gazprom and GDF SUEZ in the gas supply area started in September 1975.

In December 2006 the companies signed the Agreement to extend the existing contracts for Russian gas supply to France until 2030. In addition, the parties agreed to deliver additional gas volumes to GDF SUEZ via the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The annual gas supply volume will be 2.5 billion cubic meters.

In October 2007 Gazprom was provided with an opportunity to deliver up to 1.5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year directly to end consumers in France.

In 2009 Gazprom supplied more than 10 billion cubic meters of gas to France.

The companies have established long-term partnership relations in several areas. Thus, on September 29, 2006 Gazprom and GDF SUEZ signed their first Agreement of Cooperation in staff training and development.

GDF SUEZ is a global company operating in the power generation sector and executing projects on natural gas exploration and production, as well as processing and marketing.