Russ Oil-Gas

03 January 2008 - Upstream OnLine - Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom wants 10% of the French gas market within four or five years but has no current acquisition plans in Europe, its vice-chairman said today. "This year (2007) we delivered about 500 million cubic metres of gas directly to final (French) consumers," Alexander Medvedev told French daily La Tribune. "It's a volume that will grow. We hope to reach a 10% market share within four to five years. The French market is among the top five for Gazprom," he added. Asked if Gazprom had any acquisition plans in Europe, he said: "There is no concrete plan at the moment, but we would consider such a possibility, if certain conditions are met." He said the acquisition price needed to be "reasonable", the buy "strategic" and "in line with regulators' demands". He also said Gazprom did not plan at this stage to swap assets with Gaz de France . "We are trying to assess how to co-operate efficiently all the more since the ongoing merger between GdF and Suez will create a leader in liquefied natural gas." He said it was too early to provide details on future co-operation between Gazprom and French oil group Total to develop the Astrakhan gas field in Russia. "We are still in preliminary talks. The Astrakhan field presents specific technical difficulties... and we are looking at the technological details of this co-operation. It's too early to give details on the form this co-operation will take." Gazprom said in November it was considering teaming up with Total on the Astrakhan field, one of its 10 biggest, with potential reserves of 2.5 trillion cubic metres under Russian classification, Reuters reported.