Russ Oil-Gas

02 October 2008 - Upstream OnLine - Russian gas giant Gazprom signed a deal with E.ON giving the Germany utility a stake in the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas project. E.ON will give back to Gazprom a stake of about 1.42% in the Russian company, and the German utility will in exchange receive a quarter minus one share of the Yuzhno Russkoye gas field, the two companies said. E.ON had held a total of about 6.4% in Gazprom. The German utility is the second to join Gazprom to exploit the field - which has been producing gas since the end of last year - after Germany's BASF took a stake of 35% minus one share in April 2006. Gazprom and E.ON signed a memorandum of understanding about the field in July 2004, but several rounds of negotiations between the two companies had failed to bear fruit, leading to speculation the talks might be abandoned. The Yuzhno-Russkoye field has reserves of more than 700 billion cubic metres of gas. The field will supply gas to the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Germany.