OREANDA-NEWS. Sochi hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Claudio Descalzi, Chief Operating Officer of Eni.

The parties addressed the main areas of and prospects for enhancing the bilateral cooperation in the energy sector, in particular, the partnership within the South Stream project. It was pointed out that new supply routes would provide European consumers with the required gas volumes over the long run.

The meeting participants also discussed the issues of Russian natural gas supply to Italy.

Eni is a global energy company represented in oil and gas sectors, power generation and sales, petrochemistry, service and engineering support to oil fields.

South Stream is Gazprom's global infrastructure project aimed at constructing a gas pipeline with a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters to Southern and Central Europe for the purpose of diversifying the natural gas export routes and eliminating transit risks. The first gas will be supplied via South Stream in late 2015. The gas pipeline will reach its full capacity in 2018.

Eni holds a 20 per cent stake in South Stream Transport, a joint project company focused on the construction of South Stream's offshore section. Italy is the second largest importer of Russian gas to the EU after Germany. In 2013 the volume of Gazprom's supplies to Italy made up 25.3 billion cubic meters of gas.