Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee met with Henri Proglio, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EDF. The meeting took place as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2013. The discussion centered on the status of the bilateral cooperation in the energy sector, with a special emphasis placed on the South Stream gas pipeline.
The meeting resulted in the signing of a Heads of Agreement on gas supply to EDF within the South Stream project.
EDF Group, one of the leaders in the European power market, is an integrated energy company active in such business areas as electricity generation, transmission, distribution, supply and trading. The Group is a leading electricity producer in Europe.
For the purpose of diversifying the natural gas export routes Gazprom builds a gas pipeline across the Black Sea to Southern and Central Europe – the South Stream project. The annual capacity of the offshore gas pipeline section will be 63 billion cubic meters.
On September 16, 2011 the Shareholders Agreement of South Stream Transport was signed for the construction of the offshore gas pipeline section. According to the document, Gazprom holds a 50 per cent stake in the project, Italian Eni – a 20 per cent stake, German Wintershall Holding and French EDF – 15 per cent stakes each.
The Consolidated Feasibility Study for South Stream was finalized in the third quarter of 2011 and included a feasibility study for the offshore section and feasibility studies for national sections in the respective countries of Southern and Central Europe.
On December 7, 2012 the South Stream construction was launched. The first gas supplies via the gas pipeline are scheduled for late 2015.
In June 2012 Gazprom and EDF signed the Agreement of Cooperation in gas-fired power generation in Europe.
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