(17.12.2015) Italian oil giant Eni, which some media commentators portray as carrying out its own alternative Italian foreign policy, was also disappointed at having to renounce to a chunk of the $29 billion South Stream project. The company’s importance to the Italian economy — and the government — has been greatly enhanced by its discovery this year of the world’s largest natural gas field off the coast of Egypt, which might help explain Renzi’s adamant opposition to Nord Stream 2.