BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 20 (UPI) -- Italian energy company Eni met with top government officials in Azerbaijan to discuss transporting gas across the Caspian Sea, executives said.
Eni Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni met with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev to discuss work in the upstream sector of Azerbaijan.
Scaroni spoke with Azeri officials about the possibility of setting up a compressed natural gas project in the region that would ease the transport of Turkmen gas to overland pipelines.
"This initiative, the first of this kind being studied in the region, would allow, among other things, a substantial reduction of gas flaring in Turkmenistan," the Italian energy company said in a Tuesday statement.
Eni said it was committed to advancing CNG technology in areas where alternate transport options aren't feasible.
Kazakh officials said European leaders needed to consider transport options across the Caspian Sea in order to advance energy security by tapping into Central Asian gas supplies.
