Russia: Gazprom and Eni Sign Agreements to Expand Cooperation

The Gazprom headquarters hosted yesterday a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Paolo Scaroni, Chief Executive Officer of Eni.

The parties signed a Supplementary Agreement which extends the Strategic Partnership Agreement until December 31, 2012 with the possibility of tacit renewal.

In addition, an Agreement on sci-tech cooperation, personnel training and development was signed between Gazprom and Eni in order to amplify interaction between the companies in the following areas: improvement of technologies for hydrocarbons extraction and transportation, energy efficiency and environmental protection, gas processing, including LNG technologies.

The dialog within the framework of the personnel development program will be held in the following areas: international projects management, natural gas chain, energy saving technologies in the gas industry, process risks and process safety.

In accordance with the Agreement, Gazprom and Eni will establish a Coordinating Council responsible for preparation and supervision of sci-tech cooperation programs as well as for personnel training and development.

The meeting stressed that the development of partnership, including the intensification of experience sharing and joint training of staff, would facilitate the successful implementation of joint projects between Gazprom and Eni as well as improvement of the companies’ innovation activities efficiency.

During the meeting Aleksey Miller and Paolo Scaroni also discussed gas supplies to Italy and implementation of measures for French EDF entry in the shareholding structure of South Stream AG.

The parties noted the intense efforts to prepare the feasibility study for the onshore section of South Stream. In particular, the feasibility study for the Serbian section of the project was completed in early December and the preliminary feasibility study for the Romanian section of the gas pipeline – in November.

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Source: Gazprom, December 24, 2010;