Engie Visits Gazprom for NS2 Talks
The CEO of French energy giant Engie, Isabelle Kocher, and former minister Francois Fillon visited Gazprom's office in St Petersburg March 15 for discussions on European gas markets.
Last year Gazprom increased gas exports to France by 5.4% compared with 2017, delivering up to 12.9bn m³. This upward trend has remained throughout early 2019: according to provisional estimates, Gazprom exported 2.5bn m³ from January 1 to March 14, 2019, showing a 1.9% rise on the same period of 2018, Gazprom said.
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Kocher and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller touched upon the current trends in French and European gas markets, while also highlighting the successful operation of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, of which Engie is a shareholder; and Nord Stream 2, for which it is covering a tenth of the costs.
Engie has kept a lowish profile with respect to its role in NS 2, relative to other lenders to the project – Austrian OMV, German Uniper and Wintershall and Anglo-Dutch major Shell. Gazprom merely said March 15 however that the two sides "paid special attention to the progress of the Nord Stream 2 project." It is still awaiting Danish clearance to cross through its territorial waters, and deliveries are due to start late this year.
Nord Stream 1&2
(Source: Gazprom)
The project is heartily disliked by a number of US senators, who would like to sanction companies involved with it; while also possibly seeing more US LNG reach Europe. And a number of governments in eastern Europe have tried to stop it altogether, and contributed to funding lobby groups in the US.
But Engie, while it is rebranding itself as a green energy company, sees gas as essential for the energy transition, as its head of gas, Didier Holleaux, told NGW; and as European gas production falls, the company needs pipeline deliveries to ensure volume is there, at a predictable price.
Kocher and Miller discussed scientific and technology co-operation as well as gas deliveries. Engie's (formerly Gaz de France/GDF Suez) co-operation with Gazprom goes back some decades, with French expertise helping Russia's national monopoly to introduce energy efficiency initiatives in Russian industry through a joint venture, Ecogaz.