German chemicals group BASF and Russian Gazprom agreed to revive a deal to swap gas assets. The parties abandoned the swap agreement in late 2014 on the back of the Western sanctions on Russia due to its participation in the Ukrainian conflict and pro-separatist sentiment. Like other companies across Europe, BASF also suffered under tensions between Moscow and the West, so the lucrative deal collapsed. Now, the completion of the asset swap is expected by the end of 2015. Apart from BASF, E.ON, ENGIE, OMV, and Shell signed a shareholders agreement on the Nord Stream II project, all of them are on Gazprom’s sanctions list. The agreement sets out involvement of the global energy majors in a construction of the pipeline network to boost Russian gas supplies to the European Union. Importantly, despite retaliatory sanctions and the massive anti-European campaign in Russia, Moscow is making determined efforts not only to maintain, but step up gas supplies to the EU. The European partners were invited to the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. Interestingly, the forum was presented in the media as a summit aimed at strengthening ties with China’s entrepreneurs. Indeed, the forum bore fruit such as a development of the large-scale gas pipeline named the Power of Siberia and the decision on allocating unused land in the Far East to Chinese investors. However, a further cooperation with the EU secured at the summit is the most beneficial outcome. “Nord Stream II will double the throughput of our up-to-date non-transit route via the Baltic Sea. It is important that those are the new gas volumes, which will be sought for in Europe due to the continuous decline in its domestic production,” summed up Alexey Miller, Gazprom Executive Committee Chairman.
