Tuesday, 7 February 2012Italy has introduced emergency measures to conserve gas supplies as freezing weather continues to grip the country and much of Europe.
The government's measures include switching some power stations to oil and cutting gas supplies to some industrial customers, so homes stay warm.
"We are receiving 25-30 percent less gas from Russia through Ukraine now," Paolo Scaroni, CEO of Italy's leading energy company Eni, told La Stampa newspaper. "This happened because Italy's gas consumption reached a record 440 million cubic meters used in one day," he said.
Italian Economic Development Minister Corrado Passera said on Monday that gas deliveries to Italy were critically low.
"The situation is rather critical as Russia and France reduced gas supplies, but we are controlling (the situation)," Passera was quoted by TMNews agency as saying, adding natural gas supplies from other sources, including North Africa, were stable.
Some other European countries said late last week they faced shortfalls in Russian natural gas supplies amid the severe cold spell across Europe, with temperatures plunging to minus 38 degrees celsius.
Sergei Kupriyanov, spokesman for Russian gas giant Gazprom, told TMNews the worst was over.
"The situation with gas supplies to European countries is not critical, we are doing all our best (to stabilize deliveries)," he said.
Italy did not receive 29.6 percent of its contracted supplies last week, according to Italian pipeline operator Snam Rete Gas.
Lower Russian gas supplies may lead to difficulties again this Thursday, Eni CEO Scaroni warned
"We will have no problems until Wednesday but from Thursday we expect a new wave of cold and we do not know how Gazprom will react," Scaroni said. |
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Ria Novosti
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