Russ Oil-Gas

July 03, 2006 - Kommersant - Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom and Italy's oil and gas major Eni may soon seal an essentially new agreement, Italian Vice PM and Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Friday. The new document will be of strategic significance, the sources say, if only Eni yields control of its assets to Gazprom. Otherwise, the parties will confine to joint projects of constructing oil and gas pipelines in Turkey and Gazprom will independently attempt to jump into Italian market of end users in 2007. The negotiations of Eni and Gazprom concerning a very important agreement are underway, D'Alema briefed Moscow reporters Friday after he met Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "We are interested in Italian networks of gas distribution, energy assets and LNG projects in Egypt and Libya," Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller specified a bit later. Miller said some time before Gazprom was in talks with Eni to acquire subsidiaries of the latter - Snam Rete Gas (SRG) and EniPower. "We have made an offer to the Italians." a source with Gazprom said, "Want strategic cooperation agreement? Give majority stakes in subsidiaries. Less than that won't be enough." Gazprom is ready to swap gas assets (some interest in the fields) in the Barents Sea and oil assets in Siberia only for control of Eni assets. No strategic cooperation will happen otherwise and the agreement will confine to the joint plans of constructing a few gas pipelines.