The Italian company Saipem, owned by the ENI energy group, has performed a legal action against a company controlled by Gazprom, due to the losses emerging from the cancellation of agreements for the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline, informs RIA Novosti, writes Agerpres.

The two companies could not reach an amicable settlement. Saipem was the main contractor for this pipeline and had two agreements signed, worth 2.4 billion euros.

According to RIA Novosti, Saipem has started an arbitration proceeding before the International Court of Commerce in Paris against South Stream Transport BV since November last year, claiming that the cancellation of the South Stream project and has caused losses estimated at 759 million euros.

The South Stream pipeline, whose works were launched in December 2012 would have connected Russia with Bulgaria via the Black Sea and then head to Central Europe via Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia. The pipeline was expected to have a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters per year and the project costs were estimated at 40 billion dollars. But at the end of 2014, the Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the South Stream pipeline will not be built.