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

As part of the visit, Alexey Miller met with Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Chief of Staff of the French President and Emmanuel Macron, Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Sector.

The attending parties noted that for 40 years now Gazprom had been a reliable gas supplier underpinning French economy. The Company successfully cooperates with ENGIE – a largest energy company in Europe.

It was highlighted that the demand of French consumers for Russian gas grew rapidly in 2015. In 11 months Gazprom has exported 8.7 billion cubic meters of gas to the country showing a 32 per cent increase versus the same period of 2014 (6.6 billion cubic meters).

Alexey Miller also met with Isabelle Kocher, Deputy CEO of ENGIE in Paris today to address the status of the Nord Stream 2 project.

ENGIE specializes in power generation as well as natural gas exploration, production, processing and marketing projects.

On September 4, 2015 Gazprom, BASF, E.ON, ENGIE, OMV and Shell inked the Shareholders Agreement to construct the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea.

On November 12, 2015 Gazprom and ENGIE signed the Addendum to the Sales and Purchase Agreement for shares of the Nord Stream 2 joint project company (JPC), which executed the Nord Stream 2 project. According to the document, ENGIE increased its stake in the project to 10 per cent. Thus, the shareholding structure is as follows: Gazprom – 50 per cent, BASF, E.ON, ENGIE, OMV, Shell – 10 per cent each.

In 2014 Gazprom supplied France with 7.6 billion cubic meters of gas.