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Logo of the Italian energy company Eni in Rome
Photo: Alessandro Bianchi / REUTERS
It's not just German consumers who are concerned about Gazprom's delivery behavior; nervousness is also growing in Italy.
The Russian gas company has further reduced its deliveries to Italy.
The amount had fallen by around a third, said the Italian energy supplier Eni on Monday.
Italy receives a small portion of natural gas from Russia via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which was shut down for maintenance on Monday morning.
However, most of the Russian deliveries come to Italy via the Ukraine.
Eni said on Monday that Gazprom had delivered an average of 32 million cubic meters of gas per day in the past few days.
On Monday, the amount dropped to 21 million cubic meters.
Gazprom reduced its deliveries to Italy, Austria and France in mid-June.
Initially, 65 percent of the requested quantity was delivered to Italy.
At the time, Gazprom referred to problems at the Nord Stream compressor station in Portovaya.
A complete halt to deliveries could lead to severe upheaval
Economists expect an economic slump in the medium term if the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline does not resume operations on July 21 after the maintenance work that has now begun.
"It is feared that the Russian side will use the gas as a strategic weapon," said chief economist Thomas Gitzel of VP Bank on Monday.
“The eyes of the world will be on the pipeline hub in Lubmin on July 21.” If there was no gas, there would not be a gas emergency immediately, but filling the gas storage tanks again for the winter would be difficult and would not be until 2023 at the latest the gas would then have to be rationed.
"This would lead to another lockdown of the economy," says Gitzel.
»The German and European economy would slide into a deep recession.«
Although this is a worst-case scenario, it shows "how crucial July 21st will be this summer," emphasized Gitzel.
Should the gas tap remain closed after that, Germany would have to announce the third stage of the gas emergency plan in the foreseeable future, warned Commerzbank expert Bernd Weidensteiner.
"After all, it would then hardly be possible to do without government-imposed rationing - there is a risk of considerable economic damage."
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