Italy’s Guidi Downgrades South Stream from Priority to "Useful"

Italy’s Minister for Economic Development Federica Guidi said that the South Stream is no longer a priority.

“The South Stream project is a useful infrastructure, but probably it is not among our priorities,” Guidi said in Rome on Wednesday.  

Guidi added that the Italian government would give preference to other projects that would increase both diversity of supply and diversity of transit. 

Also on Wednesday, Socar President Rovnag Abdullayev voiced once more Azerbaijan’s intention to increase ties with Europe.  

“I would like to stress once again that Socar positions itself as a reliable energy partner of Europe. We truly believe that diversification of energy supply is one of the most important topics of today’s energy policy of the European Union, and Socar is here to support its European partners,” he commented as reported in a note published by the Azerbaijani company. 

Meanwhile, Russia’s Gazprom keeps looking eastwards, mulling cooperation opportunities with Petrovietnam. 

‘The parties addressed the future cooperation in the oil and gas sector. In particular, they touched upon the joint actions offshore Vietnam as well as within gas production projects in Russia. It was pointed out that the jointly developed Moc Tinh and Hai Thach fields located on the Vietnamese shelf would reach their full capacity by 2016 and would produce nearly two billion cubic meters of gas per year,’ Gazprom wrote on its website, adding that the parts also discussed LNG and NGV opportunities. 

The two companies entered into the Agreement on Strategic Partnership in 2009.

ENI recently indicated that it may leave the Gazprom-led South Stream project should the Italian state-controlled energy be required to commit greater financial resources that initially expected.