Moscow cuts gas supplies to Italy by a third, EU fears: "Total stop likely in 10 days"

Moscow further reduces gas supplies to Italy , by one third compared to the average of the last few days.

Eni gives the news: "Gazprom - reads a note from the company - has announced that for the day today it will supply Eni with volumes of gas equal to approximately 21 million cubic meters per day, compared to an average of the last few days of approximately 32 million cubic meters. We will provide further information in the event of new and significant changes in flows ".

A similar announcement came from the Austrian company OMV.

The news comes on the first day of the stop for maintenance work on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline . And Europe's general attention is focused on what will happen in ten days, when the gas pipeline should start operating again. There are fears that Moscow will further reduce supplies or take this opportunity as a pretext to close them permanently .

This is the "most probable" hypothesis according to the French minister Bruno Le Maire, who urges Europe to prepare. While in Germany there is fear of an " expensive, cold and dark " winter.

The EU - explains the spokesman of the Commission Tim McPhie - is preparing for every scenario, in mid-July a prevention plan will be launched in view of the winter. It is necessary to reach energy autonomy from Russia as soon as possible ”.

“We are working to contribute to the creation of a reserve which becomes indispensable in the winter months by filling the storage areas. Last night we reached 6.1 billion cubic meters in storage which correspond to 64% of the target . We at Snam have made a contribution of approximately 1.5 billion cubic meters, and we will continue to give our support, obviously within the limits of a system operator ", said Snam's CEO, Stefano Venier, at an Enea webinar. on energy saving in homes.

(Unioneonline / L)