French energy firm EDF is hoping to take a ten per cent stake in Russian GazpromÔÇÖs South Stream gas pipeline, it has emerged.
A stake would guarantee France gas to its power plants from both the Russian/Italian-operated South Stream pipeline and the Russian/German-run Nord Stream pipeline.
South Stream is to be built under the Black Sea and is seen as the main competitor to the Nabucco pipeline, backed by both the US and the EU. Nabucco aims to reduce EuropeÔÇÖs dependency on Russia for its gas supplies. Russia currently supplies 25 per cent of EuropeÔÇÖs gas.
Nord Stream will run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon were said to have discussed a possible deal in a meeting on Monday.
Currently, Russian state-controlled Gazprom and Italian oil and gas firm Eni are equal partners in the South Stream project. Another French company, energy firm GDF Suez, is also reportedly planning to take a nine per cent stake in Nord Stream.
French┬áfirms have recently┬áseemed keen to enter into tie-ups on Russian energy projects. In 2007, Gazprom signed a landmark deal with FranceÔÇÖs Total, in which the French company bought 25 per cent of Shtokman Development Company, which will develop one of the worldÔÇÖs largest natural gas deposits in the Barents Sea.
The feasibility study for the South Stream pipeline, which could be up to 3,200 kilometres in length, is expected to be completed by June 2010, with construction predicted to be finished in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Neither EDF nor Gazprom have yet made an announcement concerning a possible deal.
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