Eni Sees FID on South Stream by Early 2013

CEO of Italian oil and gas company Eni, Paolo Scaroni, has said that a financial investment decision (FID) on the South Stream pipeline project will be reached by the end of this year or early next year.

Responding to a question on the sidelines of Eni's shareholder meeting today, Mr. Scaroni said that he expected the South Stream consortium to make the FID by early 2013, both the Dow Jones and Reuters news agencies report.

Eni is one of four companies in the South Stream project, a major pipeline expected to transport 63 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe each year.

Eni is a minority shareholder in the project with a 20 per cent stake. Russian major Gazprom is the operator and largest shareholder in the South Stream project with a 50 per cent stake. Germany's Wintershall Holding and France's EDF hold a 15 per cent stake each.