Gazprom to cut gas prices for Italy's Edison

Russian energy giant Gazprom has agreed to cut gas prices for Italy's Edison S.p.A., the first European consumer to turn to the courts to demand lower prices on long-term contracts, business daily Kommersant reported on Monday. Edison, Europe's oldest energy firm, filed a lawsuit last November with the Stockholm Arbitration Court against Promgas, a joint venture between Gazprom and Italy's Eni, saying it lost money buying gas from Gazprom as market gas prices had fallen. Edison announced last Friday it had reached agreement on gas prices with Gazprom but declined to disclose the terms of the deal. Edison's statement said that the deal took into account the fact that "market conditions have changed." The Italian energy company further said in the statement that it was terminating its litigation with Gazprom. Edison CEO Bruno Lescoeur was quoted as saying that the Russian side had agreed to review the gas price for Edison considering that prices on the Italian gas market had been falling in the past few years. Gazprom Export, the export arm of Gazprom which held negotiations with Edison, confirmed to the paper that the conflict had been resolved but declined to disclose details of the new deal. The concessions will not be a major loss for Gazprom directly as Edison buys no more than 2 billion cubic meters from the Russian energy giant, but are likely to complicate Gazprom's negotiations with larger gas consumers, the paper said.