MOSCOW, June 20 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] will hold talks with Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas next week on developing a vast natural gas field in Western Siberia, the Russian energy giant's deputy chair said Tuesday.
Speaking at a news briefing, Alexander Medvedev said the upcoming negotiations on the Yuzhno-Russkoye deposit, in the Tyumen region, would be "tough," and that Gazprom was looking to reach "an agreement on cost equivalent."
The deposit, which holds more than 1 trillion cu m of natural gas, will be a core source of supplies for the $10.5-billion North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP), an ambitious Gazprom-managed project to pump natural gas to Germany across the Baltic Sea.
Gazprom and Wintershall, a 100% subsidiary of German chemicals group BASF AG, agreed in April 2005 on joint development of the Siberian gas field. The Russian company said E.ON could receive the same stake in the project as BASF, meaning 25% of voting shares.
