Russian gas giant Gazprom PJSC said it suspended its natural-gas deliveries to Italy over the weekend after it didn’t receive authorization for the pipeline flows via Austria.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the interruption was a temporary bureaucratic glitch, or whether Italy has now joined the growing list of European Union countries that have been cut off from Russian gas.
Austrian authorities said Gazprom had not signed up to changes in supply contracts required by regulatory adjustments that are made every year, and which Gazprom had known about for months. Gazprom, Austria’s government and Italian energy company
SpA said they were working to find a solution.
Moscow and the EU are in an economic war over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. EU countries have imposed sweeping financial and trade sanctions on Russia while sending arms, money and other aid to Ukraine. Russia has choked off much of its gas supply to the EU in an attempt to weaken European political commitment to supporting Kyiv.
Italian elections a week ago resulted in victory for a new governing coalition that has vowed to continue with sanctions on Russia and support for Ukraine, despite misgiving in some Italian parties about the economic fallout of the confrontation with Moscow.
For Italy, the loss of remaining Russian gas deliveries would no longer be a major blow. Russian gas accounts for a single-digit percentage of Italy’s gas supply, following moves by Eni and the Rome government to secure increased gas imports from other suppliers, including Algeria, Norway, Egypt, Qatar and Azerbaijan.
Italy’s gas inflows exceed demand from Italian households and businesses, helping the country to fill its gas reservoirs to 90% ahead of winter and export surplus gas to other European nations. However, the high price of gas amid a pan-European scramble to fill reservoirs and replace Russian gas is imposing a heavy economic burden on Italy and other EU countries.
Analysts said it wasn’t yet clear if the gas would be able to arrive in Italy via another route through Switzerland. Though the gas doesn’t represent a huge loss to the Italian market, if it stops flowing to Europe altogether the cut could further complicate efforts by the EU to make it through winter without rationing fuel, they said.
With the region on the cusp of recession, EU energy ministers on Friday agreed on a plan to reduce energy demand and claw back profits from oil-and-gas companies to help reduce bills for consumers and industries. However, EU countries have been unable to agree on a broad price cap for gas, which Italy and others are pushing for.
—Joe Wallace contributed to this article.
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