Russia, Germany sign major gas deal
ISN SECURITY WATCH (Friday, 28 April 2006: 10.35 CET) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel concluded key talks in Siberia by signing a key gas deal that gives a German company a role in the development of a lucrative Russian gas field.
The Thursday agreement signed by Putin and Merkel allows Germany's BASF-Wintershall company to work alongside Russian state-run gas giant Gazprom to develop a large gas field in Western Siberia, the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field, which will feed a new gas pipeline delivering Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
Both sides praised what they called a smooth summit and welcomed future energy cooperation.
"There are obvious prospects for the deepening of cooperation in the high-technology and science intensive sectors determining the future of world progress - I mean aviation and space exploration," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Putin as saying.
Putin said a vital task was "the transition from the traditional, predominately trade forms of cooperation to large-scale scientific-industrial cooperation between Russia and Germany" - the foundations for which had already been laid, he said.
Merkel also won a guarantee from Putin that Russia would honor its energy export obligations to Germany and the EU, despite earlier warnings that it was considering focusing more on Eastern markets.
The Thursday agreement signed by Putin and Merkel allows Germany's BASF-Wintershall company to work alongside Russian state-run gas giant Gazprom to develop a large gas field in Western Siberia, the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field, which will feed a new gas pipeline delivering Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
Both sides praised what they called a smooth summit and welcomed future energy cooperation.
"There are obvious prospects for the deepening of cooperation in the high-technology and science intensive sectors determining the future of world progress - I mean aviation and space exploration," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Putin as saying.
Putin said a vital task was "the transition from the traditional, predominately trade forms of cooperation to large-scale scientific-industrial cooperation between Russia and Germany" - the foundations for which had already been laid, he said.
Merkel also won a guarantee from Putin that Russia would honor its energy export obligations to Germany and the EU, despite earlier warnings that it was considering focusing more on Eastern markets.
posted by Marko at 4/28/2006 05:49:00 AM
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