OREANDA-NEWS. April 20, 2011. The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company's Management Committee and Jean-Francois Cirelli, Vice Chairman and President of GDF SUEZ.

The parties discussed the current situation in the gas markets and noted that the long-term partnership of European energy majors and Gazprom ensured additional reliability of Russian gas supplies to the European consumers.

The meeting participants appreciated the level of cooperation between Gazprom and GDF SUEZ.
Background

Being one of the largest energy companies in Europe, GDF SUEZ was established in 2008 as a result of a merger between Gaz de France and SUEZ. GDF SUEZ is focused on power generation also implementing projects in natural gas exploration, production, processing and distribution.

Cooperation in the gas supply sector between Gazprom and Gaz de France started in September 1975. In December 2006 Gazprom and Gaz de France signed the Agreement to extend the existing contracts for Russian natural gas supply to France until 2030. Moreover, the parties agreed to deliver additional gas volumes to Gaz de France via the Nord Stream gas pipeline. At present, GDF SUEZ has contracted the pipeline capacity of 2.5 billion cubic meters per annum. In October 2007 Gazprom was provided with an opportunity for delivering up to 1.5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year directly to end consumers in France.

On March 1, 2010 Gazprom and GDF SUEZ signed the Memorandum on additional supplies of Russian natural gas and on the entry of GDF SUEZ into the Nord Stream project. Under the document, Gazprom and GDF SUEZ will study an opportunity for delivering up to 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas a year via the Nord Stream gas pipeline starting from 2015. In July 2010 GDF SUEZ entered the shareholding structure of Nord Stream AG with a 9 per cent stake.