---

The St Petersburg International Economic Forum was fertile ground for Gazprom's co-operative working plans, with a meeting between Alexey Miller [pictured], chairman of Gazprom's management committee, and Fluxys, the Belgium-based natural gas transmission system operator.

At the meeting with Daniel Termont, chairman of the board of directors of Fluxys, and Pascal De Buck, chief executive officer of Fluxys, Gazprom discussed, amongst other things, the possibility of jointly participating in the construction and operation of European-based infrastructure for receiving, storing and marketing small-scale LNG as both a vehicle and bunker fuel, as well as an energy resource for autonomous gasification purposes.

Gasunie

Gazprom is also working with Gasunie - the European gas infrastructure company, providing transportation of natural gas and green gas in the Netherlands and northern Germany - on construction of a small-scale LNG terminal in Rostock. The terminal is to receive, store, and ship liquefied natural gas that will be used as a bunker and vehicle fuel, as well as an energy resource for autonomous gasification purposes. The Rostock terminal will be loaded with LNG from Gazprom's planned LNG production in north-western Russia.

Additionally, Gazprom is exploring the possibilities of setting up small-scale LNG production facilities in other Russian regions to export LNG to the countries near the Black Sea and the Danube River.

Shell

Also during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Miller discussed the progress and prospects of its strategic cooperation in the LNG sector with Shell's chief executive officer Ben van Beurden.

The expansion of Russia's only LNG plant within the Sakhalin II project is an objective. The plant's throughput will increase 1.5-fold as soon as its third production train is put into operation. Design and front-end engineering design (FEED) documentation for the construction project for the third production train of the LNG is currently being prepared.

Reflecting their commitment to enhancing collaboration in the LNG sector, Miller and van Beurden followed up their Agreement of Strategic Cooperation by signing a Memorandum of Understanding on the Baltic LNG project. Together, the companies will look into the feasibility of building an LNG plant with an annual capacity of 10 million tonnes in the port of Ust-Luga, in the Leningrad Region.

"We will now explore the possibilities for joining our efforts in the promising Baltic LNG project in western Russia. The new project will greatly diversify Gazprom's sales markets and strengthen our LNG portfolio," said Miller.

"Shell and Gazprom are convinced that LNG and natural gas in general have great prospects," added van Berden. "Over the past year, we made great efforts to advance our strategic cooperation."