Gazprom, E.ON extend 15-year gas contract

MOSCOW, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom and Germany's E.ON agreed Tuesday to extend their current gas contract for another 15 years, the Russian company said.

The existing contract takes Russian natural gas supplies via the German-Czech border. The agreement will last from 2020 to 2035 with supplies totaling 300 billion cubic meters of gas, Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Gazprom, the world's largest gas company, and E.ON Ruhrgas AG, the world's largest private energy concern, also signed a contract on additional supplies of 100 billion cubic meters of gas via the North European Gas Pipeline between 2010-2011 and 2036.

"Long-term cooperation in the natural gas business not only provides an opportunity to fulfill current obligations, but also allows us to establish a foundation for the future and develop modern infrastructure to ensure reliable natural gas supplies in the following decades," said Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom's deputy chief executive officer.

The two countries are also partners in the $10.5 billion NEGP project to supply Western Europe with gas via a pipeline leading from Russia to Germany across the floor of the Baltic Sea.

Medvedev said the new contract on gas supplies via the NEGP was "further proof that the project is being successfully implemented."