Russia’s Gazprom resumes gas shipments to Italy via Austria

Moscow, Oct 5 (EFE).- Russian energy giant Gazprom on Wednesday resumed gas flows to Italy through Austria, after a disruption that lasted a few days.

“Transportation of Russian gas through the territory of Austria is resuming,” Gazprom announced on Telegram.

The Russian state-owned company “together with Italian purchasers have managed to find a decision on the cooperation format amid regulatory changes in Austria at the end of September.”

Eni, Italy’s energy giant, confirmed on Saturday that Russian gas deliveries had been suspended after Gazprom said it was impossible to make transportations through Austria.

The Russian company blamed Vienna for the suspension of gas deliveries, saying the Austrian operator had allegedly refused to confirm the nominations due to recent regulatory changes in the Central European country.

On Monday, Claudio Descalzi, the CEO of Eni, said that he believed the issue would be resolved this week.

The block of Russian gas “is not absolutely due to geopolitical reasons” but to the fact that Gazprom “would have had to pay a monetary guarantee for the passage of gas to the Austrian carrier that brings the gas to Italy that was not there before,” he explained.

Before the February 24 war in Ukraine, Italy heavily depended on gas imports as it used to import 90% of the gas it consumes, 40% of which came from Russia.

However, Italy set out a diversification plan to limit its dependence on Russian gas after the invasion of Ukraine, making Algeria its main gas supplier.EFE

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