Pipeliners

April 10, 2009 (Reuters by Benjamin Mallet) - PARIS, - French utility GDF Suez said on Friday it was in talks with Russia's Gazprom over taking part in the North Stream gas pipeline project. GDF Suez Chairman and Chief Executive Gerard Mestrallet told reporters that getting a stake in this pipeline was part of its drive to secure and strengthen its gas supplies. "We have started talks with Gazprom ... We are ready to take part in this project, which directly links Germany and Russia via the Baltic sea, under the condition that we secure additional gas supplies," Mestrallet said. Gazprom said at the end of 2008 the French energy group had expressed interest in taking a minority stake in the pipeline, which is due to start at the end of 2011. "We have gone from virtual interest to agreement with our partners, to making practical sense of it," Gazprom official Stanislav Tsygankov told reporters in Moscow. GDF Suez was unsuccessful in becoming the sixth partner for the Nabucco gas pipeline project, which aims to pump Caspian gas to Europe and is described as the rival project to Nord Stream. Russian gas supplies made up 14 percent of the group's long-term gas supplies at the end of 2008. "This percentage rate could grow even though we believe supply security is achieved through supply diversity," he added. At the end of 2008, 23 percent of the group's gas imports came from Norway, 15 percent from The Netherlands, 12 percent from the Middle East and Asia and 11 percent from Algeria. GDF Suez plans to buy up to 2.5 billion cubic metres of gas per year from Nord Stream, a 5 billion to 8 billion-euro gas pipeline which would run 1,200 (746 miles) from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany under the Baltic sea. The Nord Stream, majority owned by Russian gas monopoly Gazprom , is building the pipeline with Germany's BASF and E.ON and has plans to build two parallel gas pipelines of 750 miles (1,200 km) each. Dutch state pipeline operator Gasunie has joined the project, taking a 9 percent stake from the German partners.