Moscow. The Federal Subsoil Resources Management Agency said on Thursday that auctions for the development of two oil and gas deposits in central Russia have failed due to the lack of bids. The agency has auctioned the Medveditsko-Karamyshskoye and Perelyubsko-Rubezhinskoye fields in the Saratov region getting only one bid for the Perelyubsko-Rubezhinskoye field, it said in a statement.

Italy. Italy’s Edison SPA, Turkey’s state-owned Botas, and Greece’s Depa SA signed a memorandum of understanding to transport natural gas from the Caspian Sea region to Italy via Turkey and the Adriatic, reducing Europe’s dependence on Russia as the main gas supplier.

St. Petersburg. Russian gas giant Gazprom is prepared to purchase all of Azerbaijan's gas volume, the company's CEO announced on Saturday."We are ready to buy as much [gas] as Azerbaijan is ready to deliver. We are ready to buy all of Azerbaijan's gas," Alexei Miller said at a press conference on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.

Italy. Eni SpA, Italy's biggest energy company by market value, expects demand for natural gas to return to pre-crisis levels in 2012, said Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni Friday.