Itar-Tass reported that the French energy company GDF Suez has joined the Nord Stream project.

A Nord Stream official said the group will get 4.5% of shares in the project from the German company E.ON Ruhrgas and BASF/Wintershall.

GDF Suez will own 9% of Nord Stream, the construction of which is expected to be completed in 2012. E ON Ruhrgas and BASF/Wintershall each own 15.5% and Dutch Gasunie has a 9% stake.

Gazprom press service quoted Mr Miller as saying that “Our colleagues in Gaz de France and we believe that Nord Stream will not just strengthen cooperation between the companies, but will facilitate the development of the energy industry on the continent and will become another factor of success for long term Russian-French partnership in the gas sector.”

Mr Gerard Mestrallet Gaz de France CEO spoke appreciatively of his company's cooperation with Gazprom. He said that “Joining the Nord Stream shareholders and increasing the purchases of Russian natural gas will allow Gaz de France to contribute to the energy security of Europe including the North-West, where the group is one of the major electricity producers and has a big portfolio of contracts with end electricity and gas consumers.”

In December 2006, the companies signed an agreement that extended contracts for the supply of Russian natural gas to France till 2030. They also agreed on additional gas supplies through Nord Stream. The amount of gas to be supplied by the pipeline to Gaz de France under the current contract is 2.5 billion cubic meters.

The first stretch of the pipeline is scheduled to be commissioned in 2011 and the second one, in 2012. The total capacity of the pipeline is 55 billion cubic meters of a gas year.

Nord Stream Company has started building the first section of the pipeline and hopes to make the first natural gas supplies in late 2011.

(Sourced from Itar-Tass)