Brussels, 19/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - Rejecting an idea mooted earlier this week by the CEO of Italian energy giant ENI, Paolo Scaroni, Russia's energy minister, Serguei Schmatko, refused to countenance any possibility of connecting up the Nabucco pan-European gas pipeline scheme and the Russian gas pipeline project South Stream. Schmatko told Russian press agency Interfax that he was not looking into the option and South Stream seemed a stronger proposal. He added that concrete international arrangements were already in place with gas suppliers.
At an energy conference in Houston, Texas, on Monday 15 March, Scaroni suggested that some of the competing pipelines should pool resources and routes in order to cut the costs of both Nabucco and South Stream, along with their operating costs and also to increase overall returns on the investment. ENI is a partner of Russian gas giant Gazprom for South Stream. (E.H./transl.fl)