OREANDA-NEWS. Paris hosted today working meetings of Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, with Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Chief of Staff of President of France, and Emmanuel Macron, French Minister of the Economy, Industry and the Digital Sector.

The parties addressed the Russian-French cooperation in the natural gas industry. In particular, the meeting focused on Russian gas supplies to France. Alexey Miller noted at the meeting that “since the beginning of the year Russian gas exports to France have grown by almost 800 million cubic meters, which is more than one and a half times higher compared to the previous year.”

Another meeting was held today between Alexey Miller and Isabelle Kocher, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of ENGIE. The meeting addressed the ongoing bilateral cooperation and its prospects. Special attention was paid to the Nord Stream 2 project.

France's ENGIE (prior to 2015 – GDF SUEZ) specializes in natural gas exploration, production, processing and marketing as well as power generation projects.

ENGIE and Gazprom cooperate in gas supply and transmission (Nord Stream project). The companies also interact in the sci-tech development and personnel training areas, as well as implement joint cultural projects.

On September 4, 2015, Gazprom, BASF, E.ON, ENGIE, OMV, and Shell inked the Shareholders Agreement to construct the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline system with the annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. The project is implemented by the joint project company Nord Stream 2 AG. Once the share acquisition deals are completed with foreign shareholders, the joint project company's ownership structure will be as follows: Gazprom – 50 per cent, BASF, ENGIE, OMV, Shell, Uniper (a subsidiary of E.ON in power generation and global energy trading since January 1, 2016) – 10 per cent each.