Russia's Gazprom, Dutch Company Gasunie May Cooperate in LNG Sector

Gazprom’s press office stated that Russia’s energy giant Gazprom and Dutch gas infrastructure company Gasunie examine the possibility of cooperation in the area of shale gas extraction.

(Corrects the story published on April 15, 2015. Corrects a factual mistake in the headline, quote, i.e. changes "shale gas" to "liquefied natural gas". Introduces minor rewrites throughout the text)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia’s energy giant Gazprom and Dutch gas infrastructure company Gasunie examine the possibility of cooperation in the area of liquefied natural gas (LNG) extraction, Gazprom’s press office said in a statement on Wednesday.

“[Gazprom CEO] Alexei Miller and [Gasunie CEO] Han Fennema have discussed the perspectives of mutual cooperation in the area of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) extraction,” a statement said.

The two companies cooperate on the Nord Stream pipeline. The Nord Stream is a 1,220 kilometer (760 mile) offshore pipeline that runs across the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. The annual capacity of the pipeline, which consists of two strings, is 55 billion cubic meters of gas.

Gazprom is the consortium’s majority shareholder holding a 51-percent stake. Gasunie has a 9-percent stake in the project. The three other shareholders are Germany's Wintershall Holding GmbH (a BASF subsidiary) and E.ON Global Commodities, and France's GDF Suez.

The Nord Stream twin pipelines have been operational since 2011 and 2012 and have the capacity to satisfy energy needs for over 26 million European households.