Commercial gas deliveries through Nord Stream started

Celebrations were held at a gas metering station near the town of Greifswald (Germany). The celebrations were dedicated to the commissioning of the first string of the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

Taking part in the celebrations were Dmitry Medvedev, Russian President, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, Francois Fillon, French Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, Dutch Prime Minister, Erwin Sellering, Minister President of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Guenther Oettinger, EU Commissioner for Energy, Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee, Gazprom, Kurt Bock, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, BASF SE, Johannes Teyssen, Chairman of the Board of Management and CEO, E.ON AG, Klaus Schaefer, Chairman of the Board of Management, E.ON Ruhrgas AG, Gerard Mestrallet, Chairman of the Board and CEO, GDF SUEZ, Paul van Gelder, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO, Gasunie, Gerhard Schroeder, Chairman of the Shareholders’ Committee, Nord Stream AG, Matthias Warnig, Managing Director, Nord Stream AG.

“Together with our partners we have successfully made a unique Nord Stream pipeline, which has no analogs in the world. For the first time the Russian and European gas transmission systems are connected directly. Russia, Germany, France and the Netherlands today started commercial deliveries of Russian natural gas through Nord Stream and together guarantee long-term energy security of Europe. Today we start not just the first thread of one of gas pipelines – we open a new export gas-transport corridor,” said Alexey Miller.

“Nord Stream connects the major Russian reserves in Siberia directly with the internal European market and gives Europe’s households and industry secure access to important energy resources in the global race for raw materials. For this reason, BASF has been committed to Nord Stream from the early stages as one of the first partners of Gazprom and is also heavily involved in the two connecting pipelines OPAL and NEL. Both these pipelines are central elements of the Nord Stream project and connect the Baltic Sea pipeline with the European natural gas network. Overall, the realization of the project strengthens the energy partnership between Russia and Europe and contributes to a long-term, secure supply of energy,” said Kurt Bock

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