In Rome
The Italian case illustrates how difficult it is, in times of conflict, to prevent gas shortages without setting the markets on fire. Because crying wolf prematurely, for example by going to an “alert” level, has the immediate effect of fueling speculation. While for the time being there has been no shortage of gas, the Italian Minister for Energy Transition, Roberto Cingolani, summarizes the situation as follows: “A year ago, a cubic meter of gas cost 20 cents, today it costs 1 euro. We need to store 10 billion cubic meters: a year ago it took 2 billion euros, now it takes 10.” No wonder Italy has been defending since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis the idea of imposing a ceiling on the price of Russian gas.
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Also faced with the reductions in Gazprom’s supply, Rome, which has already decreed the level of “pre-alarm”, has decided not to go up a notch, which would imply authoritarian restrictions on consumption. The National Emergency Committee on…
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