OREANDA-NEWS. A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Kurt Bock, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF took place today within the 4th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum.

The parties addressed the strategic cooperation issues, particularly an asset swap deal between Gazprom and Wintershall Holding. It was pointed out that the swap would enable the companies to substantially strengthen their positions along the entire value chain from upstream to downstream.

In addition, the meeting participants paid attention to the joint development of the Urengoyskoye and Yuzhno-Russkoye fields as well as exchanged their opinions on the progress with joint infrastructure projects including South Stream.

BASF is the world's leading chemical company. Its major business lines are production of chemicals, synthetic materials and plant protection products as well as extraction and transportation of hydrocarbons.

BASF and Wintershall Holding (a wholly-owned subsidiary of BASF) partner Gazprom in developing the Achimov deposits of the Urengoyskoye field and the Turonian gas of the Yuzhno-Russkoye field as well as within the Nord Stream and South Stream projects.

On December 23, 2013 Gazprom and Wintershall signed a Master Agreement to swap assets. As a result of the deal, Gazprom will increase its stakes in European gas trading and storage companies WINGAS, WIEH and WIEE to 100 per cent as well as receive a 50 per cent stake in WINZ involved in hydrocarbon exploration and production in the North Sea. In its turn, Wintershall will obtain a 25.01 per cent share in the project for developing blocks 4A and 5A in the Achimov deposits of the Urengoyskoye oil, gas and condensate field.