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Gazprom is ready to involve Italian Saipem in new projects — CEO

Saipem is an Eni subsidiary company

© AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky

MOSCOW, August 20 / TASS/ Russian gas major Gazprom has said that it is ready to involve the Italian contractor Saipem in new projects, Gazprom head Alexey Miller said on Thursday after meeting with the head of the Italian oil and gas company Eni, Claudio Descalzi.

Saipem is an Eni subsidiary company.

"The success of the implementation of the pipeline projects, such as the Nord Stream and Blue Stream are largely based on the high quality of the interaction between the project partners and contractors such as Saipem. We therefore appreciate the prospects of further fruitful cooperation with Saipem on current and future Gazprom projects," said Miller after the meeting.

Earlier, TASS reported that the cancelation of contract between Gazprom and Saipem won’t affect the terms of the construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline and is a technical issue, said Energy Minister Alexander Novak. "The implementation of the project is going on. Together with our Turkish partners we are continuing to finalize intergovernmental agreements. It is a technical issue which is being solved by Gazprom and technical agencies". When asked if this will influence the terms of the construction, the minister said that "no terms have been set. We are working in "the sooner the better" mode".

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Earlier, the South Stream Transport B.V., a subsidiary of Gazprom, informed Saipem S.p.A. on cancelling the contract for the construction of the first line of the offshore part of the gas pipeline that had been signed as part of the South Stream project implementation in 2014.

"This decision was made due to failure to reach an agreement on numerous routine and commercial aspects of the Turkish Stream implementation,"- the company said in a statement.

Other work on the project is under ways and in the near future South Stream Transport B.V. is to start talks with potential contractors to build the Turkish Stream’s first line.

The Turkish Stream will serve as an alternative to the South Stream gas pipeline project abandoned by Russia in December 2014. The larger part of the Turkish Stream pipeline will run across the Black Sea and coincide with the South Stream route approved earlier.

Unlike the South Stream, which implied a large-scale infrastructure construction in Europe, the Turkish Stream project is limited to the construction of a pipeline under the Black Sea and a gas hub on the border between Turkey and Greece. The remaining part of infrastructure will have to be built by Gazprom’s European customers themselves.

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