OREANDA-NEWS. Berlin hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Rainer Seele, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Wintershall Holding.

The meeting addressed the issue of Russian natural gas supply to European consumers. It was noted that direct gas transmission routes, particularly, Nord Stream played a key role in increasing the reliability of the blue fuel export supplies. In this regard the parties stressed the importance of obtaining full access to the OPAL gas pipeline transit capacities.

Nord Stream is a two-string 1,224-kilometer export gas pipeline with the annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. Nord Stream is operated by the Nord Stream joint venture (Gazprom owns a 51 per cent stake, Wintershall Holding and E.ON Global Commodities – 15.5 per cent each, Gasunie and GDF Suez – 9 per cent each).

The OPAL and NEL gas pipelines connect Nord Stream with the European gas system. The OPAL gas pipeline is operated by OPAL Gastransport (Gazprom owns a 49.98 stake and Wintershall Holding – 50.02 per cent).

A wholly-owned subsidiary of BASF, Wintershall Holding has been focused on oil and gas exploration and production for over 80 years.