Italy's ENI turns to Azerbaijan for Nabucco supply

22.07.2010 (12:22)

Azerbaijan said on Tuesday that Italian energy major ENI (ENI.MI) was keen to develop Caspian Sea gas reserves to feed the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline, seen as a key rival to the South Stream pipeline, co-led by ENI.

The statement from the Azeri industries and energy ministry came after ENI's chief executive, Paolo Scaroni, visited Baku earlier on Tuesday for a meeting with high-level officials including Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.

The statement said the talks were focused on plans to ship gas from Turkmenistan in tankers across the Caspian Sea to load into a pipeline in Baku for further transportation to Europe.

"The issue of transit of compressed Turkmen gas through Azerbaijan has been discussed in detail," it said, adding that Azerbaijan and ENI agreed to set up a joint working group.

Ex-Soviet Azerbaijan, a key player in Nabucco, recently signed a memorandum of understanding on natural gas with Turkey, opening the way for Azeri gas exports to Europe and putting the Nabucco pipeline one step closer to securing supplies, which has been a major headache for shareholders.

Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday, said the EU was doing too little on Nabucco, which would reduce the bloc's dependent on Russian gas.

ENI also is involved in Russia's South Stream pipeline, a rival to Nabucco which is designed to transport Russian gas to Europe. It is expected to go on stream in 2015.

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