Cooperation with Russia
A strong partnership binds Russia and Europe together. When it comes to natural gas, they depend on and profit from each other in equal measure: Europe needs energy, and Russia needs the stable sales market, which it is committed to via the existing pipeline infrastructure. The traditionally good relations make Germany Russia’s most important and biggest trading partner, and not just for natural gas.
Russia is already the most important natural gas producer for the European market. Furthermore, its role as supplier will grow as the gas reserves in Europe dwindle.
Consequently, WINGAS and E.ON Ruhrgas are focussing on close cooperation with their Russian partner Gazprom: as a joint venture of Wintershall and Gazprom, WINGAS is the first European company to extend its import agreements to 2030 and order nine billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from the Nord Stream pipeline. E.ON Ruhrgas AG has a 2.5 percent stake in Gazprom. About a third of the trading volume comes from Russian natural gas fields.
Working in partnership
The project partners are also cooperating to develop the Siberian natural gas field Yuzhno Russkoye. The field is situated around 3,500 kilometres north-east of Moscow in Western Siberia and has recoverable reserves of more than 600 billion cubic metres of natural gas. To put this figure into perspective, Gazprom currently supplies Germany with about 40 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year. The Yuzhno Russkoye gas field alone could therefore supply all Russian gas exports to Germany for another 15 years based on this figure. The anticipated average production of 25 billion cubic metres per year will probably be reached as early as 2009.
Picture: Yuzhno Russkoye
Close cooperation
Every stage in the process of bringing natural gas to the consumers in Europe, from the exploration of deposits to production to feeding the gas into the local pipeline network, is carried out safely and reliably. The close cooperation from beginning to end strengthens the partnership between the world’s largest natural gas producer its most important buyers and that ensures reliability for both sides.
