"From the analyzes carried out jointly with Snam, it appears that, for Italy, the closure of the Ukrainian route would not cause excessive critical issues, net of any further concomitant events which could limit supplies (interruption of the Algerian flow) or increase demand (sudden peak of cold) , thanks to the actions already implemented".
The Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto, said this at a hearing before the Chamber's Environment Committee.
For Pichetto there is "the risk of greater tensions on prices, mainly due to the demand for the gas systems of the other states belonging to the group and interconnected with ours, which however do not have access to a sufficient number of supply routes or to LNG".
"The interruption of supplies of Russian gas transported through Ukraine - explained the minister - would deprive the Union's gas system of approximately 14 billion cubic meters per year (a value already significantly reduced compared to the 55 billion that arrived on average before the conflict)" .
For Pichetto "a series of actions implemented by the ministry has made it possible to obtain an almost total emancipation from Russian supplies in two years, going from 38% in 2021 to 18% in 2022 up to 4% of the total imported in 2023. At the same time, there has been a growth in the import of Algerian gas from 28% to 36% and in the import of LNG from 13% to 26%, again compared to the total gas imported. Furthermore, the set of measures adopted to contain demand has led to a gas savings, compared with the average of the last 5 years, equal to 19% between August 2022 and January 2023 and 15% between April and December 2023".
"The winter of 2022/2023 ended with a high level of storage - concluded the minister - which allowed, in the summer period, an easy filling campaign, almost up to 100% of capacity. Currently the gas filling level is at around 64% and should reach around 45% at the end of March, a level which can still be considered high".
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