MILAN (Reuters) – Italy is struggling to cut its imports of Russian gas to zero but the country could face a very difficult winter if Moscow immediately suspends deliveries, Italian Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani said on Tuesday. .
Italy, which imports around 40% of its gas from Russia, has been seeking to diversify its energy sources since Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
Roberto Cingolani told parliament that measures to find alternative sources of supply and reduce gas consumption would allow Italy to become independent of Russia by the second half of 2024.
But Rome must go about it in stages, added the minister, who warned that a possible halt in Russian supplies in May would pose a serious problem for reserves this winter.
According to him, such a scenario could lead to a deficit of 10 to 15 billion cubic meters of gas in January and would require “much more severe” saving measures.
“It would be important to maintain Russian supplies until the end of 2022 to be able to face the winter and allow a gradual abandonment,” said Roberto Cingolani.
Italy, which used 76 billion cubic meters of gas last year, has turned to Congo, Angola, Algeria and Qatar to try to replace the 29 billion cubic meters it procured from Russia.
Council President Mario Draghi earlier told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that Italy was ideally placed to play the leading role in bringing gas from Africa and the Middle East to Europe.
Italy currently has only three terminals in operation for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and is in discussions to acquire two floating LNG terminals to increase its capacity.
Roberto Cingolani added that the idea of introducing a national cap on the price of gas would be “extremely difficult”, specifying that such a measure would have to be taken at European level.
(Stephen Jewkes report, written by Federico Maccioni, French version Laetitia Volga, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)
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