Italian energy company Eni has been informed by Russian state energy giant Gazprom that gas supplies can no longer be delivered to Italy as of Saturday due to the “impossibility of transporting it” through Austria, according to a statement by Eni released on Saturday.
The statement read, “Gazprom informed that it is not able to confirm the gas volumes requested for today, stating that it’s not possible to supply gas through Austria. Therefore, today’s Russian gas supplies to Eni through the Tarvisio entry point will be at zero.”
Eni has said it will update the public in the future, “in case supplies will be restored.”
For its part, Gazprom posted on its Telegram channel that gas flows through Austria have become impossible due to regulatory changes introduced in Austria at the end of September, which have caused the Austrian operator to now refuse to confirm transit nominations.
Gazprom went on, “Gazprom is working on a solution to the problem together with Italian buyers.”
Gas Connect Austria, the grid operator, has not issued any statement on the matter yet.
Italy continued to receive gas from Russia through the one remaining Russian gas transit line, which passes through Ukraine, before continuing on to Italy through Austria. Slovakia, Moldova, Romania, and the Czech Republic all also receive their gas through the Ukrainian pipeline.
The Ukrainian gas transport operator has reported on their website that they expect the flows through Ukraine to total roughly 41.6 million cubic meters on October 1st.
The percentage of Italian gas supplied by Russia has been steadily dropping since February, falling from 40% to roughly 18%. Italian authorities maintain they can address the shortfall by substituting alternate sources of fuel, however the nation has also adopted an energy savings plan designed to reduce gas consumption in an effort to get through the heavy consumption period of the winter. As part of the plan, buildings will be heated only to a degree Celsius lower than normal, and the heating season will be cut by 15 days.
