OREANDA-NEWS. April 27, 2011. Today in Copenhagen Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom's Management Committee and Anders Eldrup, Chief Executive Officer of DONG Energy signed a Letter of Intent to establish cooperation in gas-fired power generation.

The cooperation will focus on promoting the use of natural gas in Europe as a cleaner alternative to coal and a complement to the expanding renewable power generation capacity.

The cooperation will combine reliable and long-term gas supply from Gazprom with DONG Energy's experience and capabilities in power generation in a joint effort to build new gas-fired power capacity in Europe.

“Views of Gazprom and DONG Energy regarding significance of natural gas fully coincide: extension of its consumption is important for environmental protection and future sustainable development of Europe. Moreover, the use of gas is all at once safer, more environmentally friendly and more cost-effective compared to use of any other sources of energy”, said Alexey Miller.

“We are very pleased with this new initiative which strengthens our long-term cooperation with Gazprom. A strong focus on renewable energy and gas-to-power will become an important cornerstone in the transition to the sustainable energy production of the future”, said Anders Eldrup.
Background

DONG Energy is one of the leading energy groups in Northern Europe. 73 per cent of the company is owned by the Kingdom of Denmark.

DONG Energy produces oil and gas in Norway and Denmark and holds exploration licences in Greenland, the Faroe Islands and in the area West of Shetland, UK.

Recently, DONG Energy has put gas-fired power plants into production in the United Kingdom and in Norway and is in process of constructing a third in the Netherlands. DONG Energy has for several years been operating gas-fired plants in Denmark.

On the renewable side DONG Energy has built more large scale offshore wind farms than any other developer in the world.

Gazprom is one of the world's largest energy companies. Its major business lines are geological exploration, production, transportation, storage, processing and marketing of hydrocarbons as well as generation and marketing of heat and electric power. Gazprom's mission is to ensure maximally efficient and balanced gas supply to Russian customers and reliably fulfill long-term gas export contracts.

Gazprom's richest resources of natural gas account for 18 per cent and about 70 per cent of the world's and Russian gas reserves, respectively. Gazprom produces about 15% of the world's natural gas; the Company's share in the Russian gas production market is about 80 per cent.

In 2006 Gazprom and DONG Energy signed the Agreement on Russian gas supplies to Denmark via the Nord Stream pipeline. Pursuant to the document Denmark, starting from 2011, is due to annually purchase 1 billion cubic meters of Russian gas during a period of 20 years.

In October 2009, Gazprom and DONG Energy signed a contract on the supply of additional volumes of Russian gas to Denmark via Nord Stream. The contract specifies that beginning from 2012 and during the period of 18 years Dong Energy will annually receive 1 billion cubic meters of gas more through the second line of the undersea pipeline.