One of the companies most entwined in the natural gas business in Europe is the Italian oil giant ENI – and that has put it smack in the middle of the crisis between Russia and western nations. ENI is the biggest seller of natural gas in Europe, providing 22 percent of the market. It is also the biggest customer of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, worth about 10 billion euros a year, and it might join with Gazprom to build a new pipeline under the Black Sea. It has a deal with Russia’s biggest oil company, Rosneft, to explore in the Barents Sea. It also has rights to look for shale gas in Ukraine and plans to propose reworking some old neglected oil and gas fields there to boost output. And it is the largest natural gas producer in Libya, a key source of natural gas for Europe. Altogether, […]