Suez, Gazprom Sign Nord Stream Pipeline Deal
France's GDF Suez has signed a deal with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom to take a 9% stake in the yet-to-be-built Nord Stream gas pipeline, the companies said in a joint statement on Monday.
An industry source told Reuters that an agreement will be signed in Paris this week during Russian President Dmitry Medveded's three-day state visit to France.
The same source told Reuters that GDF Suez will get 1.5 billion m3 of gas per year from 2015 from the pipeline, as part of the deal.
GDF Suez had been in talks for over a year to join the project built by Gazprom and German utility E.ON, which will carry 55 billion m3 of gas annually from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea from 2012.
"GDF Suez will be in the project before construction starts on the pipeline in April," the industrial source told Reuters earlier on Monday, asking not to be named.
The deal will be officially signed at the Elysee Palace by GDF Suez Chief Executive Gerard Mestrallet and Gazprom chief Alexei Miller, in the presence of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev is also set to discuss Iran and the purchase of a helicopter carrier.
GDF Suez will buy its 9% stake from current shareholders - 4.5% from E.ON and the remaining 4.5% stake from Wintershall. The source said this deal will allow GDF Suez to increase its gas supplies by 10%. GDF Suez currently buys between 12-13 billion m3 annually.
Russia's differences with Ukraine, the main transit route for Russian gas, has led Moscow to propose two pipelines, the Nord Stream and South Stream, running north and south of the EU bloc, which would bypass transit states entirely.
Russia is also pushing forward with the South Stream project aimed at supplying gas to the south of Europe from the Caspian Sea region and bypassing transit states, such as Ukraine.
French utility EDF is in discussions with Gazprom and Italian energy company ENI to join South Stream project.
In January 2009, Russian gas supplies to Europe came to a halt for almost two weeks as Moscow and Kiev rowed over prices and transit terms. Most of Russian gas deliveries to Europe pass through Ukraine.
The Nord Stream approval came as a reprieve for Gazprom, which had to delay the start of its giant Arctic Shtokman gas field - one of the resource bases for the link - by three years to 2016 due to a slump in gas demand.
The Nord Stream consortium said on Monday its initial schedule for commissioning the pipeline remained intact despite the Shtokman delay.
