Transit options: Eni considers gas via Turkey
Eni eyes Turkey route for Turkmen gas
Italian oil and gas group Eni is considering a project to transport Turkmen gas through Turkey into Italy, Eni chief executive Paolo Scaroni said today.
Last Wednesday, Scaroni said Eni could be interested in a project to build a pipeline to carry gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to India and Pakistan.
On that occasion he said the plans Eni was working on with Turkmenistan to export its gas westwards did not involve either the South Stream pipeline or the Nabucco pipeline projects.
"It is still a very embryonic project we are thinking of ... it would allow Turkmen gas to reach us through Turkey," Reuters quoted Scaroni as saying at a conference.
Turkmenistan, holder of the world's fourth-largest natural gas reserves, is eager to diversify gas exports after a dispute with its main consumer Russia.
Eni, the biggest western buyer of Russian gas, is a partner of Russian gas giant Gazprom in the South Stream gas pipeline project.
Turkmenistan has said it is ready to supply the planned Nabucco pipeline, a project backed by the EU that would ease Europe's dependence on Russian gas.
Falling gas demand and prices from the ongoing economic crisis has weighed on Eni's gas and power division margins.