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Gazprom, Eni sign deal to bring EDF to South Stream

04 December 2009 10:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku.APA-Economics. Russia’s Gazprom and Italy’s Eni signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday to grant French power group EDF a stake in the South Stream gas pipeline, Reuters reported.
"A three-way document by Eni, Gazprom and EDF will be signed in the next three months," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told reporters in Rome, giving no further details.
The deal was signed by the heads of the two companies during a visit to Italy by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The plan to make EDF a minority shareholder in the project to bring more Russian gas to Europe was announced during a visit to France by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week. EDF officials have said they expect a 10-percent share.
Gazprom’s chief executive, Alexei Miller, told reporters in Rome that EDF would join South Stream some time in the first half of next year, perhaps as early as the first quarter.
He refused to speculate on the size of the EDF share, or whether it would come from ENI or Gazprom. He said these aspects had not been discussed at the meetings on Thursday.
"We have started working with EDF in many dimensions, including electric power, underground storage, swap operations and others," Miller said.