RusEnergy

02 March 2007 - Upstream onLine - Russia and Belgium have discussed increasing co-operation in the natural gas sector and may jointly build a big gas storage facility in Belgium, Russian President Vladimir Putin said today. "We may carry out a very big and useful... project - building a gas depository that would be quite big even for Europe, with an option to transport gas to third countries, including Great Britain," Russian television showed Putin saying at a meeting with Belgium's Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Verhofstadt, in Moscow on a one-day visit, also discussed the issue with Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom's chief executive, Alexei Miller. Gazprom said in a statement that the depository may be built in the Belgian town of Puderly, but gave no other details of the project. Puderly is near Belgium's energy hub of Antwerp. Verhofstadt also discussed Russia's supplies of gas to Belgium and its transit to other countries. Gazprom, which covers a quarter of Europe's gas needs, provided 300 million cubic metres of the fuel to Belgium last year. The company is also building a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Germany's northern coast, set to be a major artery for European energy imports from 2010. The Nord Stream pipeline will begin by pumping up to 27.5 billion cubic metres of gas a year. This capacity will double when a second pipe is added later.