OREANDA-NEWS. December 23, 2008. Led by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee a Gazprom delegation today paid a working visit to France.

As part of the visit Alexey Miller met with Gerard Mestrallet, Chief Executive Officer of GDF SUEZ, Jean-Francois Cirelli, Vice Chairman and President of GDF SUEZ and Christophe de Margerie, Chief Executive Officer of Total Holding.

During the meeting with the GDF SUEZ top management the parties discussed the current issues of Russian gas supplies to France, as well as the new opportunities for interaction between Gazprom and GDF SUEZ on the international energy markets, including the LNG sector.

It was stated at the meeting that the Nord Stream project was of great significance to GDF SUEZ. The company was interested in its successful implementation and expressed deep concern in entering the project as a minority partner.

At the meeting with Total CEO, the parties addressed the implementation of the first phase of the Shtokman project and the prospects for furthering the cooperation between the companies.

The parties gave a positive evaluation of the work done by the special purpose company Shtokman Development AG relevant to the preparation of the front-end engineering design and the feasibility study for the project.

Based on the meeting results the parties expressed a unanimous opinion that the long-term mutually beneficial cooperation of Gazprom and French energy companies, involving the entire production chain – form upstream to downstream, was an essential factor for European energy supply security.

Alexey Miller also informed his colleagues on the existing complicated situation surrounding the relationship with Ukraine.

“Gazprom will fulfill its contractual obligations to the European consumers and will endeavor to make Ukraine fulfill its international obligations on transit,” declared Alexey Miller.