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

The parties discussed the joint projects in the energy sector, in particular, the progress with the South Stream project. It was stressed that the project was being implemented according to schedule.

Paolo Scaroni expressed his contentment with a mutually beneficial partnership in the Russian market.

The meeting participants focused on preparation of an agreement on delivery of natural gas produced by Arcticgaz from the Samburgsky licensed block to the Unified Gas Supply System of Russia.

Following the meeting results, Alexey Miller and Paolo Scaroni confirmed their intention to continue the constructive dialog in the key areas of bilateral cooperation as part of the joint projects between Gazprom and Eni in the Russian and international energy markets.

Background

Italy is one of the major importers of Russian gas in Europe. Gazprom and Eni have established a long-standing partnership.

In 2010 the amount of gas supplied by Gazprom to Italy was equal to 13.1 billion cubic meters.

The year of 2009 was the 40th anniversary of the contracts on natural gas supplies to the Apennine Peninsula, signed between Eni and the Foreign Trade Ministry of the USSR.

In November 2006 Gazprom and Eni entered into the Strategic Partnership Agreement. Under the Agreement, the existing contracts for Russian gas supplies to Italy were extended until 2035. Moreover, Gazprom began to directly supply the Italian market with Russian gas in the amount of up to 3 billion cubic meters a year starting from 2007 and was entitled to acquire stakes in Eni's international assets.

With a view to diversify the natural gas export routes Gazprom is implementing the project for constructing a gas pipeline running under the Black Sea to the countries of Southern and Central Europe – the South Stream project.

Intergovernmental agreements were signed with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria in order to implement the onshore gas pipeline section.

On September 16, 2011 Gazprom, Eni, Wintershall Holding and EDF sighed the Shareholder Agreement for the offshore section of the South Stream project. Pursuant to the Agreement, the stakes in the South Stream project offshore section were distributed as follows: Gazprom – 50 per cent, Eni – 20 per cent, Wintershall Holding and EDF – 15 per cent each.

Yamal razvitiye (owned by Gazprom neft and NOVATEK on a parity basis) holds a 51 per cent stake in SeverEnergia with the remaining 49 per cent owned by Arctic Russia, a joint venture of Italian Eni (60 per cent) and Enel (40 per cent).

SeverEnergia fully owns Arcticgaz, Urengoil Inc. and Neftegaztekhnologia. The companies hold subsurface licenses for oil and gas fields in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug: the Samburgsky, Yevo-Yakhinsky, Yaro-Yakhinsky and Severo-Chaselsky blocks. Their ABC1 + 50% C2 reserves amount to 919 billion cubic meters of gas, 330 million tons of oil and 109 million tons of condensate.