GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR) could this year become a shareholder in a project to build a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Europe, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports on its Web site Thursday, citing OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) Chief Executive Alexei Miller.
The 1,220-kilometer Nord Stream pipeline will eventually pump 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Western Europe, bypassing traditional transit nations and is due to go on stream in 2010, the report says.
Gazprom holds a 51% stake in Nord Stream AG, the project operator.
Germany's Wintershall, a subsidiary of BASF AG (BAS.XE), and E.ON AG (EOAN.XE), a subsidiary of Ruhrgas, control 20% each, with the remaining 9% belonging to the Netherlands' Nederlandse Gasunie NV.