Demand for Russian gas in France continues to grow
RELEASE
Release
A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Isabelle Kocher, CEO of ENGIE, took place today in St. Petersburg.
Through their respective representants, Gazprom and ENGIE discussed the ongoing Russian gas supplies to France. In 2018, Gazprom increased gas exports to France by 5.4 per cent as compared to 2017 – up to 12.9 billion cubic meters. This upward trend has remained throughout early 2019: according to provisional estimates, Gazprom exported 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas from January 1 to March 14, 2019, showing a 1.9 per cent increase compared to the same period of 2018.
The meeting also touched upon the prospects for further sci-tech cooperation and collaboration in the area of culture.
Special attention was given to the progress of the Nord Stream 2 project.
Background
France’s ENGIE (before 2015 – GDF SUEZ) specializes in projects focused on natural gas marketing and power generation. ENGIE owns the largest gas transmission network in Europe and is the biggest UGS facility operator in Europe in terms of capacities.
ENGIE and Gazprom cooperate in gas supply and transmission. The companies also carry out joint cultural projects.
Nord Stream 2 is the construction project for a gas pipeline with the annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. In 2017, Nord Stream 2 AG signed the financing agreements for the project with ENGIE, OMV AG, Royal Dutch Shell, Uniper SE, and Wintershall Holding GmbH.