Russ Oil-Gas

MOSCOW, January 28, 2009 (RIA Novosti) - A former East German intelligence officer and managing director of the Nord Stream gas pipeline project could join the board of Russian energy giant Gazprom, a Russian paper reported on Wednesday. Matthias Warnig will be nominated to Gazprom's new board of directors, which will be elected on June 26, business daily Vedomosti said, referring to three sources: a Russian government official; an acquaintance of the Nord Stream head; and a manager of Gazprombank, a banking institution related to Gazprom. Gazprom sought and received Warnig's consent to be nominated, a source close to the Nord Stream managing director confirmed to the paper. The final list of candidates will be drawn up only late in the week, with nominations open until January 30, and approved by the current Gazprom directors on February 4, the paper said. Gazprom's and Warnig's representatives declined to comment on the information. Warnig, 53, is expected to be nominated by Gazprom and the paper said he could take the seat of the sole independent director, former finance minister Boris Fyodorov, who died in November in London. A former officer of the main intelligence service of East Germany, Warnig has been working in Russia since 1991. He held several posts at Dresdner Bank until 2005 and since 2006 has been the managing director of Nord Stream, the company that operates the project to build a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea to pump gas from Russia directly to Germany.