OREANDA-NEWS. The city of Ludwigshafen hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Kurt Bock, Chairman of the BASF Board of Executive Directors.

The focus of the meeting fell on the main areas and prospects for the companies' cooperation in the gas production, storage and transmission sectors.

The parties appreciated the joint actions on developing the Urengoyskoye and Yuzhno-Russkoye fields, as well as on expanding and operating UGS facilities in Europe. Moreover, the meeting participants shared opinions regarding the cooperation within joint infrastructure projects.

Alexey Miller and Kurt Bock also discussed the progress with the asset swap deal between Gazprom and Wintershall Holding. It was stressed that reinforcing the companies' positions across the entire production chain would help enhance the reliability of gas supplies to end consumers.

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 (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.