FRANKFURT, July 31 (Reuters) - German chemicals group BASF said on Friday it has signed a memorandum ofunderstanding to join the group of companies intending to expandthe Nord Stream pipeline to bring gas from Russia to Germanyunder the Baltic Sea.
The company said last month its oil and gas subsidiaryWintershall was in talks about a possible membership in theconsortium, which already consists of Russia's Gazprom, oil major Shell and utilities E.ON and OMV.
Gazprom and its partners are to build line 3 and 4 totransport up to 55 billion additional cubic meters of gas on theroute, which already encompasses lines 1 and 2 of the same size,by the end of 2019.
Wintershall has a 15.5 percent stake in the first two linesthat have been operational since October 2012.
"The EU's import requirements are expected to rise further,since the gap between the production and consumption of naturalgas continues to grow," the statement said. (Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Maria Sheahan)