The Barents Sea includes the vast Shtokman gas field, 650km (400 miles) from the port of Murmansk, holds an estimated 3.2 trillion cu m of natural gas and 31 million metric tons of gas condensate.
Paolo Scaroni said Eni planned to increase annual natural gas production 3% in 2009-2012, and that the company planned to get involved in long-term development of deposits in the Barents Sea, as well as in Kazakhstan and western and northern Africa.
He added that the company also planned to ink long-term contracts with Algeria's Sonatrach, the Netherlands' Gasunie, Norway's Statoil and Russian energy giant Gazprom (RTS: GAZP).
Italy is the third largest European natural gas market after the United Kingdom and Germany. Natural gas accounts for over 30% of Italy's energy balance, and imports, mainly from Algeria and Russia, accounted for some 86% of the country's natural gas demand last year.
