Italian oil and gas giant Eni said Monday it was ready to pay 20 million euros in guarantees to unblock the suspension of Russian gas deliveries to Italy through Austria
announced on Saturday by Gazprom.
“The blockage is due to the fact that Gazprom should have given a monetary guarantee for the passage of gas to the carrier bringing gas from Austria to Italy, which did not exist before, and Gazprom did not pay,” said Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi on the sidelines of a conference in Rome.
“So now we see if we can take over” and pay the Austrian carrier a guarantee of 20 million euros instead of Gazprom, he explained, expressing the hope that “the problem can be solved this week.”
“The blockage is absolutely not due to geopolitical reasons,” assured Mr. Descalzi. “It is hard to imagine that a company that wants to pay in rubles can provide guarantees in euros for a passage,” he added.
Gazprom had completely suspended its gas deliveries to Eni on Saturday, citing the “impossibility of transporting gas through Austria” due to a new regulation that came into force on October 1.
Most of the Russian gas delivered to Italy comes through Ukraine, via the TAG pipeline which arrives at Tarvisio in the north of the country, on the border with Austria.
According to Descalzi, Italy received before the suspension some 20 million cubic meters of Russian gas per day, or “about 9-10%” of its gas imports, compared to 40% before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2021.
By the end of September, Italy has “reached its gas storage target of 90%” and “is increasing it”, said Sunday the Minister of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani.
In Italy, there is no problem of gas availability, because “at the moment we export between 18 and 20 million cubic meters” per day and “there are more than 40 million cubic meters for storage,” he added.
