The Austrian energy group OMV and the Russian group Gazprom signed a series of documents on Friday to develop their strategic partnership, including a small liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the Russian Black Sea coast, OMV Petrom’s majority shareholder announced.

According to OMV, Rainer Seele (OMV General Director ) and Alexey Miller (Gazprom General Manager) signed a Memorandum of Understanding stating the principles of a possible cooperation between Gazprom and OMV in coordinating the activities for developing the gas transport infrastructure needed to supply natural gas in Central and South Eastern Europe.

The two companies also signed a framework agreement to collaborate in the LNG sector. The parties intend to cooperate in an integrated project for a small LNG production terminal on the Russian Black Sea coast and for the transport, marketing and sale of LNG.

Last month, Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molodtsov said in an interview with TASS that Russia might independently organize production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) using Russian technologies by 2020-2022. “That would allow us to organize LNG production using Russian technologies regardless of the external situation, with volumes of at least 5 million tons per year,” he said. “Practically all European engineering companies are interested in cooperation with Russian companies, and we expect this year there will be some obvious progress on localization of production and defining licensing conditions,” he added.

Previously, in December 2016, OMV and the Russian Gazprom group signed a basic asset-sharing agreement under which Gazprom will receive 38.5% of OMV (NORGE) AS, a company focused on exploration and production of oil in Norway. Instead, OMV will receive a 24.98% stake in a project to develop blocks 4 and 5 of Achimov, a part of the Uregoy oil, gas and condensate reservoir in Siberia.