MOSCOW, December 22 (RIA Novosti) - Gaz de France Suez is interested in joining the Nord Stream gas pipeline project as a minority shareholder, Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Monday.
Top managers of the French and Russian companies met in France on Monday, where it was announced that "GDF Suez considers the Nord Stream project highly important, and is interested in its successful implementation and in joining it as a minority partner," Gazprom said in a news release.
The Nord Stream pipeline, which will pump gas from Siberia to Europe under the Baltic Sea, bypassing East European transit countries, is being built jointly by Gazprom, Germany's E.ON and BASF, and Dutch gas transportation firm Gasunie at an estimated cost of $12 billion.
The first stage of the project, with a transport capacity of some 27.5 billion cubic meters per year, is expected to come online in the fourth quarter of 2011.
