Gas receiving station. File photoROME, Jun 19Italy is not ready for an immediate cessation of gas supplies from Russia, but it can survive the coming winter without it, Claudio Descalzi, head of the leading Italian oil and gas group Eni, said. Last Tuesday, Gazprom announced that due to restrictions at the Portovaya compressor station, it could to supply gas to Nord Stream in the amount of up to 100 million cubic meters per day, against the planned 167 million, since only three gas compressor units (GPUs) can now be used on it, in particular, due to delays in the work of the German Siemens. Bologna, at an event organized by the newspaper La Repubblica, he said that currently the supply of gas on the market exceeds demand.
"If they (Russian supplies) stopped now, we would not be ready. We will start to be ready in autumn-winter 2022/23. We need to finalize all the agreements that we have built over the past four to five months", Descalzi said.
According to him, at present, gas storage facilities in Italy are 54% full, by October this figure should be increased to 70-80%, which will be facilitated by the doubling of supplies from Algeria. Speaking about the possibility of stopping Russian gas supplies, Descalzi expressed the opinion, » that with the decisive action that the government is now taking, we will be able to survive the winter.» Under the worst-case scenario, he noted, Italy should force the flow of gas from other countries. «There will probably be a high alert and some restrictions, but in any case we have a diversification (of sources) that will allow us to spend the winter,» the top manager said.
Merkel dispelled the main American myth about Russian gasAgainst the backdrop of a decrease in supplies by Gazprom, the Italian media, citing government sources, reported that next week the country's authorities could raise the crisis level in the energy sector to «alert» — the second of three possible. According to the newspaper Corriere della Sera, this will lead to an increase in imports from other sources, «reducing the demand for gas under interrupted commercial contracts» and the possible use of alternative fuels. Italian Minister for Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani said that Rome is ready to take countermeasures in connection with reduction in Russian gas supplies, but first it is necessary to understand whether the situation will stabilize. On Wednesday, the minister said that the reduction in Russian gas supplies to Italy did not lead to «critical problems.» On Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi expressed the opinion that the reasons for the reduction in gas supplies from Russia are political. Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov previously stressed that Moscow has never used gas supplies to punish anyone, but sells fuel solely in its own interests, to increase the well-being of Russians and on a commercial basis. jpg» />Denmark is afraid of a real crisis due to interruptions in gas supplies