Against the odds: The USSR and East-West Germany energy relations
... West German company Ruhrgas. The deal was part of a much larger arrangement know as “gas for pipes”. Two additional contracts were signed in 1972 and 1973, which further intensified the cooperation and set the stage for the emergence of the gas interdependence model. Coincidently or not, in 1973 both the GDR and FRG received their first deliveries of natural gas. The subsequent cooperation was based on long-term oil-indexed contracts, spanning between 20 and 30 years with minimum take-or-pay prerequisites requiring between 75 and 85 percent of the quantity to be purchased. In 1980 the supplies to ...