FACTBOX-Gazprom pursues global expansion

GERMANY

- Gazprom said on Feb 29 that it plan to build joint gas-fired power plant in Lubmin. The firm said it would take a final decision on the plant in 2009, adding that the new plant would have capacity of 1,200 MW. The new plant to go on stream in 2011.

- Already Gazprom supplies one third of Germany's gas under term deals with E.ON's Ruhrgas and BASF's Wintershall. It controls a 1,830 km gas pipeline network in Germany via Wingas -- a joint venture between Gazprom and Wintershall, Western Europe's largest gas storage company.

- In October 2007, Gazprom and BASF completed a deal that gave BASF unit Wintershall 25 percent minus one share in its Yuzhno Russkoye gas field and increased Gazprom's share in a joint venture Wingas. The following month, Gazprom announced it had also given BASF one preferred share with no voting rights, raising BASF's stake to 35 percent.

- Industry sources have said Gazprom is seeking stakes in British power assets owned by E.ON in return for offering E.ON interests in Russian gas fields.

HUNGARY

- Hungary formally signed a deal on Feb 28 to join Gazprom's 10 billion euros ($15.10 billion) South Stream gas pipeline.

The pipeline, which will be jointly built by Gazprom and Italy's ENI (ENI.MI), will take 30 billion cubic metres (bcm) of Russian gas to southern Europe a year.

- Gazprom and MOL have formed a company to study the proposed extension of the Blue Stream gas pipeline, which takes Russian gas to northern Turkey.

ITALY

- The heads of Italy's Eni (ENI.MI) and Gazprom discussed the possibility of cooperating in the oil business at a meeting in Moscow on March 25.

- Italy's Enel (ENEI.MI) said on March 6 that it would give Gazprom a stake in an Italian power plant as reciprocity for gas supplies to OGK-5 (OGKE.MM). Enel, Italy's biggest utility holds 59.8 percent of the Russian power generator OGK-5 after a public buyout offer, paying 2.6 billion euros ($4 billion) for the stake.

- Gazprom supplies one-third of Italy's gas under term contracts with Eni (ENI.MI).

- Gazprom and Eni in June last year unveiled a plan for a big new pipeline -- the South Stream pipeline -- to take Russian gas under the Black Sea to Europe, undermining an earlier plan to extend a Turkish route, the Nabucco project.

Gazprom's chief executive Alexei Miller has said Gazprom still might take a stake in the Nabucco pipeline that will bring Caspian and Iranian gas to Europe.

NETHERLANDS

Gazprom will receive a 9 percent stake in Dutch firm BBL Company, of which state firm Gasunie owns 60 percent and which was set up to build and operate a pipeline to carry natural gas from Balgzand in the Netherlands to Bacton in Britain.

RUSSIA

- Gazprom confirmed on Feb 21 that it would start pipeline gas exports from its giant Arctic Shtokman gas deposit in 2013 and begin shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the field in 2014. Gazprom made the statement after officially setting up a joint operating company to develop Shtokman's first phase together with France's Total (TOTF.PA) and Norway's StatoilHydro (STL.OL).

- Russian investment firm Integrated Energy Systems (IES) and gas giant Gazprom jointly bid for major power producer TGK-7 (VTGK.MM) on March 21. The two have set up an investment firm that will enter their joint bid for the government's 32 percent stake in TGK-7, to be sold next month.

Gazprom also completed the acquisition of effective control of regional power utility TGK-1 (TGKA.MM). The firm was cleared by the anti-trust agency to buy 47 percent of TGK-1 on March 20 and had already paid for it.

- British oil major BP (BP.L) agreed in June 2007 to sell its interest in the Siberian Kovykta gas field to Gazprom at a knock-down price, after months of pressure on BP's Russian joint venture TNK-BP TNBPI.RTS.

Gazprom, BP and TNK-BP have also agreed to set up a global venture. The deal's closure has been repeatedly postponed and is now not expected before mid-2008.

- Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and its Japanese partners last year sold half of their $22 billion Sakhalin-2 project, Russia's biggest single foreign investment, to Gazprom after months of government pressure.

- Gazprom has spent billions of dollars on acquiring power generation assets, including Moscow utility Mosenergo MSNG3.MM, TGK-1 (TGKA.MM) and plans to buy control of OGK-2 (OGKB.RTS) and TGK-7.

SERBIA

- Gazprom said construction of the Serbian arm of the South Stream gas pipeline should start by 2012. The 10-billion-euro ($14.65-billion) project by Gazprom and Italy's ENI (ENI.MI) is designed to bring Siberian gas to Europe.

The deal under which Serbia joined South Stream in exchange for allowing Gazprom to buy control of Serbian oil monopoly NIS was widely seen as a politically-motivated agreement to thank Russia for its support on the issue of Kosovo.

SLOVAKIA

- Gazprom owns 49 percent of gas network SPP together with Ruhrgas and Gaz de France.

TURKEY

- Gazprom supplies three quarters of Turkey's gas via southern Europe and by a pipeline under the Black Sea, which it jointly owns with Eni.

It wants to buy Turkish gas distribution firms, seeks direct deals with Turkish utilities and aims to transit gas to Israel.

MIDDLE-EAST AND ASIA

CHINA

- Gazprom wants to supply China and South Korea with pipeline gas. In 2006, the Russian gas export monopoly said it would build two major pipelines to China but later said the project had been delayed due to disagreements over gas pricing with Beijing. In October 2007, Gazprom said it had formally decided to begin work on a pipeline to China's Xinjiang province in 2008.

- Gazprom has said it may supply China, Korea and Japan with liquefied natural gas (LNG). It also wants to develop oil and gas fields in India, take part of a gas pipeline from Iran to India and work on Iran's South Pars project.

IRAN

- Gazprom agreed on Feb. 19 to develop more phases of Iran's giant South Pars gas field and enter the country's oil sector. It has already invested in phases 2-3 of South Pars -- worth an estimated $2 billion -- together with France's Total (TOTF.PA) and Malaysia's Petronas.

KYRGYZSTAN

- Kyrgyzstan awarded Gazprom exploration licences on Feb 20 for two oil and natural gas fields and invited the Russian gas monopoly to buy stakes in its state-owned companies. Gazprom said it would invest up to $300 million to develop the Central Asian nation's fields within the next four years. (Compiled by Bate Felix and Raissa Kasolowsky)