Gazprom, Wingas agree first NEGP gas supply deal

Reuters

MOSCOW - Russian gas monopoly Gazprom said on Wednesday it had agreed a first supply deal for the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) with a 25-year agreement with Wingas, a unit of Germany's BASF .
The firms said in a joint statement that Gazprom would supply Wingas with 9 billion cubic metres a year from the launch of the pipeline, scheduled for 2010. The statement did not disclose the value of the contract.

Gazprom signed an agreement last month with German utility E.ON and Wintershall, a unit of BASF, to jointly build the $4 billion pipeline which runs from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

The two German partners each have a 24.5 percent share in the pipeline, while Gazprom, the world's biggest gas company, holds the majority stake of 51 percent.

The pipeline deal was presided over by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Putin, whose presence was widely seen as an indication that the pipeline project had become a priority for the Kremlin.

The 1,200-km (720-mile) pipeline will ship Siberian gas from Russia to Germany, bypassing Poland and the Baltic states, and Gazprom has said it may branch out with spur pipelines to Finland and Britain.

Designed in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Baltic pipeline is meant to limit the dependence of Gazprom, the world's top gas producer, on neighbouring states like Ukraine and Belarus for transporting gas to Europe.