Russ Oil-Gas

MOSCOW, April 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russian energy giant Gazprom and Germany's Verbundnetz Gas (VNG) are to build a 350-million-euro gas storage facility in the east of Germany, the companies said in a joint press release on Wednesday. A cooperation deal was signed in Moscow by Alexander Medvedev, a deputy head of Gazprom's management committee, and Klaus-Ewald Holst, the chairman of the executive board of the German company, a natural gas importer and supplier in the east of Germany. "Gazprom's participation in underground gas storage projects in Germany is an example of how the company's strategy to ensure energy stability in Europe is being implemented," said Alexander Medvedev. The storage facility will be built in the town of Bernburg, in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. The first underground storage space is to be commissioned in 2009. When it is completed in 2022, the facility will have an active storage capacity of 510 million cubic meters. "Over the next 14 years, Gazprom and VNG intend to jointly invest around 350 million euros in the construction of the underground gas storage facility and build a total of ten additional subsurface storage spaces in Saxony-Anhalt," said Holst. Gazprom is already involved in the operation of the biggest gas storage facility in Western Europe, located in the German town of Reden, with a capacity of over 4 billion cubic meters. Another facility is currently being built in Heidach, Austria, and may become the second largest in Europe, with 2.4 billion cubic meters.