Today at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2010 Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee met with Gjorge Ivanov, President of the Republic of Macedonia.

The meeting participants discussed the current issues of cooperation in the energy sector. During the negotiations the Macedonian party expressed its interest in receiving an increased amount of natural gas from Russia and joining the South Stream project. In this regard, Alexey Miller informed Gjorge Ivanov that Gazprom was ready to consider the opportunity of constructing a gas lateral from the trans-national South Stream system to Macedonia. A feasibility study for the gas lateral should be prepared before long, as the respective studies for other sections of South Stream are nearly complete.  

In case construction of the gas lateral from South Stream to Macedonia is deemed technically and economically feasible, the parties will initiate signing of an intergovernmental agreement, a binding contract for gas supply and will set up a joint venture for the project management.

Alexey Miller and Gjorge Ivanov decided to establish a bilateral working group and scheduled the Gazprom Management Committee Chairman’s visit to Macedonia for this fall in order to speed up these activities.

As Alexey Miller noted at the meeting, “the attention paid to South Stream by a growing number of countries proves the gas pipeline’s relevance, importance and economic viability”.

Background:

Russian gas has been supplied to Macedonia since 1997.

In 2009 Gazprom provided the country with 0.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas.