France joins South Stream gas pipeline [fr] [de]
French company Electricité de France (EDF) on 27 November signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia's Gazprom regarding its possible participation in the South Stream gas pipeline, seen as a competitor to the EU-backed Nabucco project.
Background
The Gazprom-ENI South Stream project is seen as a competitor to the EU's Nabucco pipeline and its commissioning term is also nearly identical to its EU-favoured rival.
Russia recently signed agreements with Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Slovenia to start building South Stream, and also announced that it would more than double its planned capacity from 31 billion cubic metres per year (bcm/y) to 63 bcm/y (EurActiv 18/05/09 and 25/05/09). Until now, Nabucco and South Stream's capacities were considered identical (30 bcm/y), making South Stream potentially more interesting.
The EDF Group, one of the leaders in the European energy market, is an integrated energy company active in all aspects of the business: energy generation, transmission, distribution, supply and trading. EDF is Europe's leading electricity producer.
The document, which concerns EDF's participation in the construction of the offshore section of the South Stream pipeline, was signed in Paris during a visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The memorandum specifies that the details of EDF's participation in the project will be worked out jointly with Italy's ENI, which currently owns 50% of South Stream AG, according to a statement posted on Gazprom's website.
"We are gaining a new reliable and long-term partner today in EDF […] We are confident that South Stream - along with Nord Stream - increasingly being recognised by European countries will ensure the well-being of Gazprom's customers in terms of energy," said Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.
French Prime Minister François Fillon hailed EDF's participation in South Stream and the recent partnership between GDF-Suez and Gazprom on Nord Stream, according to the Kremlin website (EurActiv 30/07/09). Like South Stream, Nord Stream is designed to bring Russian gas to Western Europe, bypassing Ukraine.
Fillon expressed satisfaction that France had overtaken the USA by volume of its investments in Russia. He said contacts had been developed in other spheres too, declaring that 2010 would be "Russia Year" in his country, with "France Year" taking place simultaneously in Russia. Putin said that over 350 cultural events would take place under this heading.
Fillon hailed Russian-French cooperation in a number of energy-related fields. BNP Paribas signed two deals on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol with Russian-British joint oil venture TNK-BP, while Russian power generator TGC-4 and France's Dalkia International S.A. established a joint venture to handle the production, transportation and distribution of geothermal energy in Russia.
Putin also mentioned other areas of cooperation, including machine-building, space, aeronautics and nuclear energy.
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