Dusseldorf - E.ON, one of Germany's biggest energy
companies, said Thursday it had bought one quarter of the one of the
world's greatest natural gas fields, at Yuzhno Russkoye in Russia.
The deal, which follows years of tortuous negotiations, was signed
with gas monopoly Gazprom at a meeting of Russian and German
government leaders on Thursday in the Russian city of St Petersburg.
Another big German company, BASF, has already bought a quarter of
the same field.
E.ON controls a large part of Germany's gas and electricity
supplies.
Part of the reason Russia and Germany are building the Nord Stream
pipeline under the Baltic Sea is to tap the Siberian gas field, which
has reserves of over 600 billion cubic metres, to feed the energy to
German factories and homes.
Other European nations have warned that Germany may end up being
too dependent on Gazprom.
E.ON has tried harder than some of its German rivals to develop
non-Russian gas sources.
Under the transaction, Gazprom was able to buy back some of its
own shares and reduce E.ON's influence on Gazprom.
The owner of the production licence and operator of the field will
be Russian OAO Severneftegazprom (SNGP), a statement by E.ON said.
Gazprom will hold just over half of SNGP.
E.ON's Ruhrgas unit and and BASF's Wintershall division will each
hold a stake of 25 per cent minus one share.
Gas production at the site started last year and will reach around
25 billion cubic metres annually as early as next year, enough to
supply a metropolis of approximately 10 million households.
Under a complex swap, Gazprom is to receive E.ON Ruhrgas's 49 per
cent stake in the Russian company ZAO Gerosgaz, which holds just
under 3 per cent of Gazprom shares.
After the transaction, E.ON Ruhrgas will still hold a 3.5-per-cent
direct stake in Gazprom.
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