Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee met today with Nikola Gruevski, Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia as part of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2012.

Alexey Miller and Nikola Gruevsky discussed the intergovernmental agreement being prepared and the cooperation within the South Stream project. The meeting noted the successful completion of the tender procedure aimed at choosing a contractor company to perform the feasibility study of Russian gas supplies to Macedonia within the South Stream project. The study results will be presented in the third quarter of 2012.

The parties agreed to continue their cooperation as part of the South Stream gas pipeline construction in Macedonia.

Background

Russian gas has been supplied to Macedonia since 1997. Gazprom provided the country with 0.13 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2011.

With a view to diversify the natural gas export routes Gazprom is implementing the project for construction of a gas pipeline running under the Black Sea to the countries of Southern and Central Europe – the South Stream project.

Intergovernmental agreements were signed with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria in order to implement the onshore gas pipeline section.

The tender procedure aimed at choosing a contractor company to perform the feasibility study of Russian gas supplies to Macedonia within the South Stream project was completed in April 2012. Giprospetsgaz was announced as the tender winner.