Our Arctic Neighbors: Eni to use Alaska experience in Russia

Italy’s Eni could be making progress on developing its Enineftegaz assets in the Yamal region that it acquired from Russia’s defunct Yukos oil company in 2007. The CEO of Eni, Paolo Scaroni, met with the chairman of Russia’s state-owned Gazprom, Alexei Miller, in late September. Up until now, Eni has been unable to obtain access to Gazprom’s pipelines to transport gas from the far northern fields.

Scaroni and Miller agreed to sign a binding document on the development of the assets by the end of October. Eni has a great deal of experience with offshore projects in Italy, Africa and Alaska, Scaroni said at a press conference in Russia. “And we would like to use it in Russia, in particular in the Arctic seas,” he added.

On his visit to Russia Scaroni also signed a memorandum of understanding with the governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug which promises to promote high level job training in the oil and gas sector, to contribute to the development of charity and sponsorship initiatives, and to cooperate in cultural and sporting activities.

—Sarah Hurst