MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian premier's spokesman confirmed on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart had discussed France's possible role in the South Stream gas pipeline, but only in general.
Russian business daily Kommersant reported on Tuesday that state-controlled Electricite de France planned to sign a deal with Gazprom for at least a 10% stake in South Stream, designed to deliver gas to Europe under the Black Sea and seen as a rival project to the EU-sponsored Nabucco.
The paper also said France's GDF SUEZ is completing talks on its part in another ambitious Russian project, Nord Stream that is to pump gas directly to Western Europe along the Baltic Sea floor. The paper said citing an unidentified government official that the projects were discussed at a meeting between Putin and Francois Fillon on Monday.
"South Stream was mentioned at yesterday's meeting in general terms. There was no detailed discussion of the project," Dmitry Peskov said.
Kommersant reported referring to a government source: "Gazprom and EdF plan to sign a cooperation memorandum soon. It was initialed a week ago."
Another person close to the talks told the paper the document could be signed during Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller's visit to France scheduled for later this month. "The document envisions broad cooperation, most importantly at least a 10% stake in South Stream for EdF in exchange for long-term contracts for gas supplies to the firm's power plants located along the pipeline route," he said.
"The Russian projects will thereby receive additional political backing and France new guaranteed gas supplies," the paper said.
South Stream is designed to annually pump 31 billion cu m of Central Asian and Russian gas to the Balkans and onto other European countries, with its capacity to be eventually increased to 63 billion cu m. The Nabucco pipeline is due to bring Caspian gas via the Balkans to Central Europe and reduce the EU's dependence on Russian gas.
Italy's ENI is so far Gazprom's only partner in the project. The Russian gas monopoly and EdF denied comments on the planned deals, the paper said.
