Nord Stream Extension to Britain Becomes Possibility

Discussions regarding the extension of the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Britain appear to be picking up steam.

Lask week Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller suggested that plans to bring Russian gas to the UK could move forward as early as next year.

BP has now confirmed Miller's comments in Gazprom's third quarter report that the British oil and gas producer is interested in expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline.

A BP spokesman said that there has been discussion on "some technical and commercial issues of the project."

Gazprom's marketing and trading division has business in Britain, and Gazprom's export division, which is highly critical of low liquidity on spot markets on the European continent, says it views Britain's National Balancing Point as viable for pricing of its gas.

Gazprom M&T signed its longest-ever spot indexed contract with Centrica in September, selling 2.4 billion cubic metres of gas for delivery to the British utility via the sub-sea interconnector between Belgium and Britain over three years starting in 2014.

In the report, it also said it aimed to increase its European storage capacity to 4.8 billion cubic metres in the coming two years. Its main European storage asset is a 2.8 bcm underground storage facility at Haidach, Austria.

In an asset swap with BASF, Gazprom will take full control of that facility and two other European storage facilities as well as European trading units in return for an increased role for BASF's oil and gas unit in a Siberian upstream project.