By the time war broke out in Ukraine, Italy had received around 40 percent of its gas from Russia.
(Photo: dpa)
Rom Russia has suspended its gas supplies to Italy for the time being. This intensifies the energy crisis in Europe again. The Russian company Gazprom has announced that it can no longer deliver gas through Austria, the Italian supplier Eni announced on Saturday. Russian gas normally arrives at, and is distributed from, the Italian-Austrian border town of Tarvisio in Italy.
Gazprom said in its Telegram channel that the reason for the suspension of gas transport across the territory from Austria to Italy was “the refusal of the Austrian operator to confirm transport nominations.”
In Austria there were regulatory changes at the end of September, which is why this problem has now arisen. The state-owned company did not give any details as to what exactly it was about. “Gazprom is working together with the Italian buyers to solve the problem,” the company said. Eni also stated that it contacted Gazprom to solve the problem.
An Eni spokesman told the Ansa news agency that, according to the company, Austria continues to receive Russian gas. Russia supplied gas to Italy through various sources. Most of the deliveries for Austria and Italy come via the Transgas pipeline, which runs through Ukraine and Slovakia.
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A small part was also delivered to Italy via Nord Stream 1. Deliveries have been suspended since the beginning of September due to alleged maintenance work. The complete interruption of Italian gas supplies now comes a few days after the alleged acts of sabotage against the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.
Gas deliveries to Italy already reduced in June and July
The Austrian natural gas importer OMV was allocated larger amounts of Russian gas than in the past. This was reported by the Bloomberg news agency and referred to Andreas Rinofner, a spokesman for OMV.
The Gazprom logo can be seen at a branch of the Russian state-owned company in St. Petersburg.
(Photo: dpa)
By the time war broke out in Ukraine, Italy had received around 40 percent of its gas from Russia. Then the government in Rome and the semi-state group Eni concluded agreements with a number of other countries – such as Algeria – to minimize dependence on Moscow.
In recent months, it has been said that Italy only gets around 25 percent of its gas from Russia. In the past few days, the delivery quantities had fallen sharply. According to an insider referenced by Bloomberg in its report, Italy has procured enough alternatives to accommodate shortages this winter.
The Russian state-owned company Gazprom had already reduced its deliveries to Austria and Italy in July and June. The Austrian energy supplier OMV announced at the time that Gazprom had informed them that around 70 percent less gas was arriving in Baumgarten near the Slovakian border than had been ordered. In mid-June, Gazprom had already reduced deliveries to Austria by half.
With agency material from dpa and Bloomberg.
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