Eni (Italy) has started a new round of negotiations with Gazprom (Russia) to change the confictions of contract. It hired White & Case for the talks, its spokesman Una Bats said.
Eni President Paolo Scaroni announced plans to scrap the take-or-pay contracts with Gazprom in autumn 2012. The company did not want to extend contracts due to high expenses for gas in 2009-2011. The company paid about €1.5 billion back then.
Italian companies are reducing gas purchases from Russia due to reduction of gas demand and increase of imports from Libya. Gazprom’s gas exports to Italy dropped by 12% to 76.8 billion cubic meters in 2012.
