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Austria's OMV aims to join Russian Nord Stream pipeline project

Xinhua, June 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Austrian oil and gas giant OMV has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding over participation in the expansion of the Russian Nord Stream gas pipeline, the company announced in a press release on Thursday.

OMV Executive Board Member Manfred Leitner signed the memorandum during a meeting in St. Petersburg with Russian gas giant Gazprom, represented by CEO Alexey Miller, as well as with E.ON and Shell.

OMV said the project would specifically entail the expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline via installation of two further pipeline strings that would lead from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, through which 55 billion cubic metres of gas would be transported.

The company will also explore cooperation on the Russian oil and gas field Urengoy, particularly in relation to two gas and gas condensate projects with further details currently being kept secret, an OMV spokesperson told the Austria Press Agency.

OMV CEO Gerhard Roiss on Tuesday said a new gas pipeline into Europe must come about, particularly following the failure of the Nabucco pipeline project, which had initially been intended to carry Iranian gas into Europe.

"Europe needs sufficient common gas highways to bring gas to the markets," Roiss told the Club of Economic Journalists in Vienna, adding that he considers lack of progress on the issue to be a "failure of Europe." Endit