Gas crisis in Europe: Russia cuts deliveries to Italy by 50 percent

Created: 06/20/2022, 09:35 am

Russia is cutting gas supplies to Europe more and more.

The Russian state-owned company Gazprom promised Italy only 50 percent of the ordered delivery volume on Friday.

Rome – The Russian energy company Gazprom is restricting the supply of natural gas to Italy.

According to the state gas supplier Eni, Gazprom promised 50 percent of the ordered delivery volume on Friday.

Gazprom: Russia drastically cuts gas supplies to Italy

Italy actually ordered 63 million cubic meters of gas from Russia that day.

Gas deliveries had already been reduced in the previous few days: on Wednesday by 15 percent and on Thursday by 35 percent of the quantities ordered.

As recently as Wednesday, the Italian Minister for the Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, said that "no critical situations" could be identified due to the restricted gas supplies from Russia.

Italy is as dependent on Russian natural gas as Germany.

The country imports 95 percent of its own gas needs, with 40 percent of imports coming from Russia in 2021.

Gazprom: Germany and France also affected

Russia is currently drastically cutting gas supplies to Europe.

In the past few days, Gazprom has reduced deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany by 60 percent.

The reason for the throttling of gas supplies through Nord Stream 1 are delays in repair work by Siemens, Gazprom announced on Tuesday.

According to the Federal Government, the reduction in gas supplies from Russia is politically motivated.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) spoke of a “serious situation”.

Security of supply is guaranteed for the near future, he emphasized.

However, it is clear: “We cannot go into winter with 56 percent storage.

Then they have to be full.” He appealed to people and companies to save gas now.

In addition, it was announced on Friday that France no longer receives any Russian gas via pipelines.

According to the French network operator GRTgaz, this has been the case since Wednesday and is also due to the "interruption of the gas flow between France and Germany".