By Alexei Anishchuk
AMSTERDAM, April 8 (Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom and Dutch Gasunie signed a letter of intent on Mondayto explore the potential expansion of the Nord Stream pipelineto Britain, one of several deals signed during PresidentVladimir Putin's visit to the Netherlands.
If the project comes through, the extended arm of NordStream would give Gazprom greater access to Britain, which hasan annual demand of 100 billion cubic metres (bcm).
For the Netherlands, long-term cooperation with Gazpromwould secure gas flows as its gas reserves dwindle and thecountry is expected to become a net importer of gas in 2025.
Alexei Miller, head of Gazprom, said the two companiesdiscussed the possibility of increasing the Nord Stream pipelinewith a line that will go to the United Kingdom. He said thecapacity of the new pipeline would be about 27.5 bcm, the sameas the capacity of each of the two existing pipelines.
"The key issue is to sign a long-term contract with ourBritish partners to supply gas to the British market," Millertold reporters in Amsterdam.
Nord Stream has annual capacity of 55 bcm, enough to supplyaround 10 percent of the EU's annual gas needs. The pipelinemakes landfall in Lubmin, northeast Germany.
Because of rules limiting the market share of individualdistributors within the European Union, Gazprom has been unableto use the pipeline at maximum levels.
"The infrastructure in northwestern Europe can be improved alittle bit further so they (the Netherlands) need support (fromRussia) for investment," said Hans Van Cleef, an ABN Amro energyeconomist.
"Russia would of course like to benefit from this hub in thefuture."
GREATER COOPERATION
Gazprom and its oil arm Gazprom Neft signed twodeals with Royal Dutch Shell - one for joint shale oilexploration and drilling, the other for joint exploration anddrilling of hydrocarbons on Russia's continental shelf.
The deals underscore the Kremlin's drive to open up accessto Russia's trove of hard-to-recover energy reserves tointernational energy firms with the expertise needed to secureits position as a leading global oil and gas producer.
"Strong Russian-Dutch energy relations are of greatimportance to both our economies," said Henk Kamp, Dutchminister of economic affairs, during Putin's visit.
"We value them even more today, as they stimulate economicgrowth and enhance energy security."
In recent years, the two countries have stepped upcooperation in the energy sector to include projects such aspipelines and gas and oil storage.
Gazprom will secure cushion gas for Europe's biggest naturalgas open access storage to be built in the Netherlands inexchange for nearly 2 bcm of capacity.
Once it is completed in 2015, Gazprom will gain nearly halfor 1.9 bcm of gas in Bergermeer storage, which is 20 kilometresaway from the BBL pipeline that takes gas from the Netherlandsto the Britain.
A consortium of Vitol Tank Terminals International (VTTI)and Russian investment group Summa will invest $1 billion in anew terminal in Rotterdam port.
Once it is fully operational in 2016, the terminal will havethe capacity to handle 2 million tonnes of crude oil and 1million tonnes of refined oil products, taking significant sharein global oil trade.
