Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom and Italian energy giant ENI are in talks to build a $2.5 billion...
Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom and Italian energy giant ENI are in talks to build a $2.5 billion natural gas liquefaction plant near Saint Petersburg, ENI CEO Paolo Scaroni said.
"At the present time we are discussing with Gazprom building a natural gas liquefaction plant close to Saint Petersburg with a capacity of eight billion cubic meters of gas per year."
Scaroni however said that Gazprom access to the Italian market would depend on ENI receiving access to concrete oil and gas projects in Russia.
Scaroni said ENI was interested in joint liquefied natural gas, or LNG, projects off northwest Russia in the Baltic and Barents seas.
"We would be able to use ENI's exclusive technologies in high-pressure gas liquefaction," Scaroni said.
The Barents Sea is the site of the massive Shtokman gas field, which Gazprom plans to develop with several foreign partners.
ENI is not among the five foreign companies short-listed to help develop the 3.7-trillion-cubic meter field.
