Today, the Gazprom Headquarters has hosted a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Paolo Scaroni, Chief Executive Officer of ENI.

The parties examined the progress with execution of the signed Agreement of strategic partnership in the frames of which ENI purchased a number of Russian production assets.

The participants discussed issues related to the cooperation within the South Stream project implementation. The meeting pointed also to the cooperation between the companies while developing the feasibility study for the project investments and further implementation.

Reference:

In November 2006, Gazprom and ENI signed the Agreement on Strategic Cooperation stipulating an opportunity for Gazprom to provide direct Russian gas deliveries to the Italian market in 2007. By 2010 annual gas volume supplied will reach 3 bcm. The Agreement foresees prolongation of existing contracts for gas supply up to 2035.

On April 4, 2007 in the frames of the Agreement of strategic cooperation Gazprom signed an Agreement for call option with ENI and Enel for purchasing assets included in the lot 2 for sale of Yukos Oil Company property.

The bidding resulted in EniNeftegaz (ENI and Enel hold 60, 40 per cent, respectively) purchasing the following gas assets: Arcticgaz (100 per cent), Urengoioil (100 per cent), Neftegaztekhnologiya (100 per cent), Gazprom Neft (20 per cent).

On June 23, 2007 Gazprom and ENI signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the South Stream project execution.

The Memorandum sets the cooperation directions for both companies in the South Stream engineering, financing, construction and management sectors.

Pursuant to the document, the South Stream marine section will lay across the Black Sea from the Russian coast (the Beregovaya compressor station) up to the Bulgarian coast. The total length of the Black Sea gas pipeline section is around 900 km, the total depth is more than 2000 m.

The parties examine two different construction routes for the onshore section crossing the territory of the European Union member countries. Within the project execution Gazprom and ENI will utilize modern technologies in compliance with the strict environmental requirements.

On September 6, 2007 Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee signed the Order “On the Establishment of the Coordinating Committee for the South Stream Project”.