French utility GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR) will later Monday sign a memorandum of understanding with Russia's OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) to get a 9% stake in the NordStream pipeline, a spokesman said.
The French company expects to finalize the deal early April, before construction begins on the pipeline, which will link Russia to the European Union through the Baltic Sea.
GDF Suez will get a 4.5% stake from Germany's E.ON AG (EOAN.XE) and another 4.5% from Wintershall AG, a unit of BASF SE (BAS.XE). Both German companies are Gazprom's partners in NordStream.
GDF Suez is also negotiating additional natural gas supplies from Gazprom of around 1.5 billion cubic meters a year, the spokesman said. It currently gets 12 billion to 13 billion cubic meters a year from Gazprom.
Asked about the financial details of the deal, the spokesman declined to comment.