OREANDA-NEWS. Rome hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Federica Guidi, Italian Minister of Economic Development.

The parties discussed the status of bilateral gas cooperation and prospects for its development. It was noted that the demand for Russian gas in the European market was steadily increasing. The decline of domestic gas production within Europe creates prerequisites for gas import growth in future. In that context, the meeting addressed Russian gas exports to Italy.

Alexey Miller also had a meeting with Claudio Descalzi, Chief Executive Officer of Eni S.p.A. In particular, the meeting focused on further measures to boost Russian gas sales in the Italian market.

Eni S.p.A. is a global integrated energy company. It operates in the oil and gas, electricity generation and sale, petrochemicals, oilfield services and engineering industries. Eni is Gazprom's major partner for the Blue Stream project.

Italy is the third (EU's second) largest consumer of Russian gas after Germany and Turkey. In 2015 Gazprom exported to Italy 24.4 billion cubic meters of gas, which is 12.6 per cent more compared to 2014.