OREANDA-NEWS.  St. Petersburg hosted today a meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Karsten Heuchert, Chairman of the Verbundnetz Gas (VNG) Executive Board.

The parties highly appreciated the current state of the partnership relations between the companies and addressed the cooperation development issues.

“Our contract signed over 40 years ago provided the basis for developing new enormous fields in Russia, creating the largest gas transmission system in the world as well as a transportation and distribution system in Germany. VNG was the first company to start supplying Russian natural gas to Germany. In a manner of speaking, Gazprom and Verbundnetz Gas are the originators of the Russian-German energy dialogue. Today more than ever the issues of energy security are especially crucial for the European gas market. In this context we and Verbundnetz Gas are in step with the times. We are developing projects for underground gas storage. This issue is most relevant today given the relations with Ukraine in the gas sector. There is no doubt that cooperation with Verbundnetz Gas will allow us to create new gas storage capacities in Europe and therefore to increase the reliability and stability of gas supply to our European consumers in the autumn-winter period,” said Alexey Miller.
Background

VNG business activities involve natural gas import, underground storage and supply to consumers in Germany's eastern federal lands and Berlin. The company's shareholders are EWE holding 47.9 per cent, Wintershall Holding – 15.79 per cent plus one share, VNG Verwaltungs und Beteiligungsgesellschaft – 25.79 per cent less one share, Gazprom – 10.52 per cent.