Russia halts gas supply to Italy for days

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Italy’s largest energy company, Eni, has not received natural gas from Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom for three days.

According to Archyde.com on the 2nd (local time), Eni did not receive gas for three days from the 1st to this day, and the supply stop is expected to continue until the 4th.

Eni is Italy’s largest importer of Russian gas.

In a statement sent via Telegram, Gazprom claimed that the problem was due to regulatory changes in Austria. Gazprom supplies gas to Italy through a gas pipeline through Austria.

Austrian authorities explained that the recently changed supply contract had to be signed by Gazprom, but the company did not comply, causing supply problems.

However, Eni pointed out that Austria continues to receive gas from Gazprom, and Austrian energy company OMV has no problems with supply and demand.

The Ukrainian War has raised concerns regarding energy security in Italy and other European countries.

Tensions have increased as a recent leak occurred in the Northstream-1 and Northstream-2 subsea gas pipelines.

More than 40% of Italy’s annual gas imports were from Russia, but recently this share has fallen to around 10%, a source told Archyde.com.

In the second quarter business report released at the end of last month, Eni said that it recently signed new gas supply contracts with African countries such as Algeria, Egypt and Congo, and plans to completely replace the annual gas imports from Russia (20 billion m3) by 2025. said.

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