The share of Russian gas imports by Italy has decreased by 30% since February

MOSCOW, 27 Sep — PRIME. The share of Russian gas imports by Italy has decreased from 40% to 10% since February, Bloomberg reports, citing sources.

“Currently, the share of Russian gas in Italian imports is 10%, compared to about 40% before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February,” the agency said.

According to him, Italy has enough alternative sources of gas from North Africa to cope with a potential shortage this winter if Russia cuts off supplies to the country. An increase in expected supplies of gas from Algeria and Egypt, according to sources, will be able to cover the share of gas that Italy still receives from Russia.

The head of the largest oil and gas company Eni, Claudio Descalzi, said last weekend that in 2022 Italy will be able to replace about half of Russian gas, or 9.7 billion cubic meters. In 2023, this volume will reach 80%, or, according to him, 17.6 billion cubic meters.

The volume of nationwide gas consumption in Italy for 2021 amounted to 76 billion cubic meters. After the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, the Italian government set the task of breaking free from dependence on natural gas imported from the Russian Federation as soon as possible. At the initiative of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, concrete steps were taken and new agreements were signed to diversify energy sources and, in particular, increase gas supplies from Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, the Republic of the Congo and a number of other countries. By September, the share of Russian gas supplies was reduced from 40% to 18%, and given the savings in consumption and the receipt of new energy resources, Italy expects to become completely independent of gas supplies from Russia in the second half of 2024.