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Heads of Gazprom, Shell discuss situation on European gas market

The parties reviewed current issues pertaining to their joint activities, including the Sakhalin 2 project

MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/. Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee Alexey Miller and Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Ben van Beurden have discussed the situation on the European gas market, as well as the operation of the Sakhalin 2 project, the Russian gas producer said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The parties reviewed current issues pertaining to their joint activities, including the Sakhalin 2 project and the efforts being undertaken by the two companies to reduce their carbon footprint across the natural gas value chain. Alexey Miller and Ben van Beurden paid particular attention to the situation on the European gas market," the statement said.

Europe has been experiencing extremely low gas reserves in its underground facilities this autumn, which coupled with the other factors have pushed the prices for gas up to record highs. Particularly, the price of gas futures at the TTF hub in the Netherlands neared $970 per 1,000 cubic meters in the middle of September, though later it declined.

Sakhalin-2 has been running since 2009 and is Russia’s first liquefied natural gas plant. The first two processing lines allow for the production of about 11.6 mln tonnes of LNG per year. The operator of the project is Sakhalin Energy, with Gazprom owning a 50% plus one share stake, Shell having a 27.5% minus one share, and Mitsui & Co. Ltd holding a 12.5-percent stake. Additionally, Mitsubishi Corporation holds a stake of 10% here as well.

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