OREANDA-NEWS. March 4, 2008. At the Gazprom Headquarters, Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom and Klaus-Ewald Holst, Chairman of the Executive Board of Verbundnetz Gas signed in the presence of Reiner Haseloff, Economy and Labor Minister of Saxony-Anhalt an Agreement of Cooperation in the underground gas storage sector.

Pursuant to the Agreement, the parties will construct a new UGS facility near Bernburg (Saxonia-Anhalt, Germany). The first gas storage cavern is planned to begin operation in 2009 and the last one – in 2022. By the construction end the active capacity of the UGS facility will account for 510 mln cu m of gas.

“The Gazprom Group’s participation in underground gas storage projects in Germany represents a concrete example of the execution by the Company of its strategy aimed at providing European energy security,” stated Alexander Medvedev.

“Within the next 14 years Gazprom and VNG are determined to jointly invest circa EUR 350 mln in the construction of UGS facilities and to create a total of ten additional caverns in Saxonia-Anhalt. In this way, our companies will make a substantial contribution to higher reliability of supply to European consumers,” said Klaus-Ewald Holst.