Sochihosted today the sixth meeting of the Coordination Committee for Sci-Tech Collaboration between Gazprom and Gasunie. The meeting was led by the Committee Co-Chairmen: Dmitry Lyugai, Member of the Management Committee, Head of the Prospective Development Department of Gazprom and Hans Coenen, Vice President for Corporate Strategy & Portfolio Management of Gasunie.

The meeting was also attended by heads of specialized structural subdivisions of both companies as well as representatives from the following subsidiary companies: Gazprom VNIIGAZ, NIIgazeconomika and Gazprom Marketing & Trading Singapore.

The meeting participants summed up the results of the Sci-Tech Collaboration Program 2010–2012 and addressed such aspects of the mutually beneficial cooperation as the ecology, dispatch management of gas transmission systems, underground gas storage and anti-corrosion protection of gas pipelines.

The parties upheld the initiative to considerably cut carbon dioxide emissions and highlighted that natural gas was the only type of fuel complying with up-to-date environmental and economic demands.

It was noted that environmental protection and energy saving were a promising line of the interaction between Gasunie and Gazprom. The participants stressed that the sci-tech cooperation should result, inter alia, in jointly-developed energy-efficient and environmentally-sound technologies for the realizing activities.

At the end of the meeting the parties expressed mutual interest in joint projects and inked the Sci-Tech Collaboration Program 2013–2015. The document stipulates broader interaction in exploring the gas market development prospects, including further constructing gas infrastructure and storage facilities as well as studying the principles of electronic trading platforms.

Background

Gasunie is a European gas infrastructure company, whose network ranks among the largest high pressure gas pipeline grids in Europe with the total annual gas throughput of approximately 125 billion cubic meters. Gasunie's network consists of over 15,000 kilometers of pipeline in the Netherlands and northern Germany and approximately 1,300 gas receiving stations. The company also offers gas and LNG storage services.

On November 6, 2007 Gazprom and Gasunie signed the Umbrella Agreement on joint participation the Nord Stream project and BBL. On June 10, 2008 Gasunie was added into the Nord Stream AG shareholders register as a new shareholder obtaining a 9 per cent stake in the joint venture.

On December 7, 2007 Gazprom and Gasunie signed the Agreement on Sci-Tech Collaboration.

On June 18, 2010 Gazprom and Gasunie signed the Memorandum of Understanding on strategic cooperation, which provides for expanding the two companies' interaction in the field of gas transportation infrastructure, underground gas storage, Nord Stream gas pipeline construction, sci-tech collaboration, LNG, environmental protection, energy efficiency, information and cultural exchange, personnel management, etc.

On October 20, 2011 Gazprom, Gasunie, Eurotechnika and BioGazEnergostroy Corporation signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the joint implementation of the “green gas” production project in Russia.

On April 8, 2013 Gazprom and Gasunie signed a document stipulating cooperation between the companies in exploring the possibilities for the Nord Stream gas pipeline expansion as well as setting up other infrastructure projects to secure gas supply for North-West Europe and the UK.

The share of Gasunie in Nord Stream AG equity capital is 9 per cent.