On April 24, 2008 the city of Groningen (the Netherlands) hosted the first meeting of the Coordination Committee on Sci-Tech Cooperation between Gazprom and N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie chaired by Vlada Rusakova, Member of the Gazprom Management Committee, Head of the Gazprom Strategic Development Department and BertPanman, Managing Director Special Projects of Gasunie.

The parties coordinated and signed the Program of Sci-Tech Cooperation between Gazprom and Gasunie for 2008 and 2009. The Program envisages exchange of experience and interaction of the companies in such fields as energy saving and environmental protection while gas transmission, investment projects management as well as control over gas transmission and gas flows dispatching systems.

In addition, the Coordination Committee members received information on the progress with the joint projects aimed at developing tools for the execution of energy saving projects in the Russian Federation by the example of the Kaluga Oblast as well as at the exchange of experience related to capacities load planning with the use of simulation systems in dispatching control.

In the course of the meeting the parties noted a high potential of interaction between Gazprom and Gasunie in the area of energy efficiency and gas transmission management and expressed their hope for further deepening of the companies’ cooperation in the sci-tech field.

“Providing reliability of natural gas supplies largely relies on fundamental market mechanisms being just inactive in the absence of required technologies,” pointed out Bert Panman.

“Timely introduction of new technologies is one of the most significant elements in providing European energy security,” highlighted Vlada Rusakova.

Reference:

N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie is a state owned gas infrastructure and transmission company based in the Netherlands. The company owns one of the largest gas distribution networks in Europe with a total length exceeding 12,000 km. The network annually supplies some 100 bcm of gas constituting a significant part of the total European gas consumption.

On November 6, 2007 Gazprom and Gasunie signed an Umbrella Agreement to partner in the Nord Stream and BBL gas pipeline projects and to utilize gas transmission capacities of Gasunie.

On December 7, 2007 Gazprom and Gasunie signed an Agreement on sci-tech cooperation.