OREANDA-NEWS. December 11, 2009. Today in Venice the Gazprom delegation led by Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee took part in the celebrations devoted to the 40th anniversary of natural gas supplies from Russia to Italy as part of the Company’s cooperation with Eni.

The welcoming statement sent by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee on the occasion of the anniversary says that:

“Today we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of signing the Agreement on long-term natural gas supplies to Italy, which became a milestone in the contemporary history of Europe. Over this period, Gazprom and Eni, as strategic partners, established unprecedented partnership relations based on mutual trust and efficient commercial decisions.

Thus, the companies jointly constructed a unique gas pipeline, Blue Stream, unparalleled in the global history. Currently, Gazprom and Eni are playing an active role in executing a new large-scale project, South Stream, to become an integral part of the European energy security.

I am sure that further Russian-Italian cooperation in the gas sector will yield new impressive outcomes to promote friendly ties between our countries, as well as economic prosperity of Russia and Italy.”

“Relations between Eni and Gazprom have a 40-year-long history of successful cooperation. From the very first energy agreements between our countries we have never suspended relations with Russia. Throughout this period Gazprom has never failed to perform its commercial obligations.

An important phase of development of our unique relations was the Strategic Cooperation Agreement signed in 2006, which laid the basis for an international alliance for joint projects implementation across the whole value chain, from upstream to downstream. These projects will ensure consolidation of our companies’ positions on the global energy market, thus making a substantial contribution to reliability of energy carriers supply to Italy and Europe.

Russia and Europe benefit from our partnership. We are going to develop our relations with Russia in the spirit of a mutually-beneficial partnership,” noted Paolo Scaroni.