OREANDA-NEWS. October 09, 2015. As part of the 5th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, a working meeting took place today between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Jean-Francois Cirelli, Special Advisor to the Presidency of ENGIE (Gas Supplies).

The parties considered the outlook for future cooperation in the energy sector. Special attention was given to increasing the efficiency of Russian gas supplies to consumers in France and Europe in general. For instance, the meeting noted the success of the Nord Stream project that had proved to be effective in terms of direct supplies to Europe.

In addition, the participants discussed the next steps to build a new export route – Nord Stream II. It was unanimously agreed that the said infrastructure project was vitally important for securing reliable gas supplies to Europe.

Background

ENGIE is a prominent European energy company focused on power generation as well as natural gas exploration, production, processing and marketing projects.

The cooperation between Gazprom and ENGIE in the gas supply area started back in 1975. In 2006 Gazprom and ENGIE signed the Agreement to extend all the three existing contracts for Russian natural gas deliveries to France till 2030. In addition, the parties agreed on additional gas supplies to ENGIE through Nord Stream. At present, ENGIE’s contractual gas volumes for this pipeline are 2.5 billion cubic meters per annum.

Running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, Nord Stream is an export gas pipeline with an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters. Nord Stream AG is a joint company (Gazprom holds 51 per cent, Wintershall and E.ON – 15.5 per cent each, Gasunie and ENGIE – 9 per cent each) operating the project.

On September 4, 2015 Gazprom, E.ON, Shell, OMV, BASF and ENGIE inked the Shareholders Agreement to construct the Nord Stream II gas pipeline system with the capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. In 2014 Gazprom supplied France with 7.095 billion cubic meters of gas.