A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Fulvio Conti, Chief Executive Officer & General Manager of Enel has been held today at the Gazprom Head Office.

The parties addressed matters in relation to further bilateral cooperation deepening in the oil & gas sector, placing a focus on Russian natural gas supply and transmission to Italy, including along existing routes and with the use of projected new capacity.

Reference:

The natural gas market of Italy (a total of 84.28 bcm consumed in 2005) is the third-largest in Europe after the Great Britain and Germany. The share of gas in the Italian energy mix exceeds 30 per cent.

In 2005 Italy imported approximately 86 per cent of its natural gas requirements. Domestic production stands at 12.96 bcm per annum. In 2005 Gazprom supplied Italy with 21.7 bcm of gas.

Enel is a prominent Italian energy company focusing on electricity generation and marketing, power grid operation and telecommunications.

Enel owns the national electricity grid as well as power plants with a total capacity of 42,000 MW.

About 30 per cent of overall electricity is generated from natural gas. Enel owned power plants annually consume a total of 10 bcm of gas.

At present, Enel has long-term contracts to import a total of 9.5 bcm of natural gas per year, of which 6 bcm comes from Algeria and 3.5 bcm – from Nigeria. In Italy Enel annually buys 3-6 bcm of gas from ENI.

Starting January 2003, Gazexport has been supplying gas to Enel on a spot deal basis, with some 335 MMcm delivered as at September 1, 2006.