Italian oil and gas company Eni SpA (E) Thursday said that, following a request from Russian Premier Vladimir Putin, it will try to set up a European consortium to restart the transport of Russian natural gas to Europe.
After meeting with Putin in Moscow, Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni said the consortium, which is expected to include Germany's E.ON (EONGY) and France's GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR), would pay for natural gas needed to run Ukraine's pipeline network.
A dispute between Russia and Ukraine has left some European Union countries without gas since Jan. 6, forcing some companies to slow their production and affecting people's everyday lives, especially in Eastern Europe, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas.
In a conference call, Scaroni said an agreement on the consortium may be reached as early as Friday. If that's achieved, he said, the consortium may be able to anticipate gas supplies for 75 days, which would amount to some 1.5 billion cubic meters.
"It would be a temporary solution...as we await the resolution of the Russia-Ukraine [dispute], which today is out to sea," Scaroni said, adding he hasn't had any contact with Ukraine.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in a separate telephone conference that Russia is ready to ship gas to the E.U. through Ukraine, but that Kiev is blocking this trade.
Ukraine has asked Russia to provide 1.7 billion cubic meters of so-called technical gas, Peskov said. "Russia is not ready to take all the risks for supplying this amount," he said, adding that his country is therefore "proposing to major partners to share this risk of transit."