Paolo Scaroni, chief executive officer of Eni SpA, said the move to combine the planned pipelines was "what bankers call a strategic fit," Bloomberg reported Scaroni as saying at a Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference in Houston.

"Should all partners decide to merge the two pipelines for part of the route, we would reduce investments, operational costs and increase overall returns," he added.

Europe should promote spending on infrastructure to deliver natural gas to consumers from new sources of fuel in Africa, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, Scaroni said.

Europe may need to import an extra 180 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually by 2020, stretching available supplies as China, India and Pacific member states of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation seek more natural gas, the Eni chief executive added. In comparison, Russia currently provides about 300 billion cubic feet of gas to Europe annually.

Discoveries of shale gas in the US have freed up supplies for the rest of the world, Scaroni said. New sources of gas from Africa, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan would help satisfy demand in Europe if pipeline connections could transport the gas to key markets, he added.

If the two pipelines were to "partly merge" as Scaroni suggested, it appears that the stakeholders would need to chose either Romania or Serbia for a large section of the new pipe.

Asked by EurActiv to comment, the European Commission chose not to react at this stage. The Nabucco consortium spokesperson was unavailable for comment.

Source: www.euractiv.com/Italy's-Eni-wants-rival-gas-pipelines-to-collaborate