Italy will not suffer any serious consequences from diminishing natural gas supplies from Russia through Ukraine, Industry Minister Claudio Scajola said on Tuesday.
The minister explained that Italy was fortunate because it had sufficient gas stockpiles, demand was relatively low and it could count on gas supplies from other sources, including Libya, Algeria, Norway, Britain and the Netherlands.
Moscow has virtually shut down its gas pipelines which transit through Ukraine over a price dispute with Kiev.
During the night between Monday and Tuesday no Russian gas was reported to have arrived in Italy and less than 20% of the 60 million cubic meters of the gas Italy usually imports daily from Russia is expected to arrive on Tuesday.
Although Italy faces no immediate threat, Scajola has activated an emergency task force at his ministry to monitor the situation and authorise the acquisition of additional supplies from other sources if necessary.
Italy's gas reserves are said to be at 90% capacity and in a few weeks a new liquid gas conversion plant will go into operation in Rovigo and supply Italy with 10% of its demand.
Scajola has also urged the European Union to do whatever necessary to help resolve the problem and ensure regular gas supplies to all of Europe.
