According to these sources, the increase in gas deliveries expected from Algeria and Egypt this winter would be able to cover the supplies that Italy still receives from Russia. Italy's original plan was to become completely independent of Russian gas by 2025, but according to data cited by Bloomberg sources, Russian gas already represents around 10% of Italian imports, down from around 40% we imported before. of the invasion. And in the spring, when the new supply agreements that the government led by Mario Draghi has entered into with various countries around the world - especially in North Africa - come into force over the last few months - it will be possible for our country to consider itself disconnected from Russian gas in a rather short time.
Among the countries with which we have signed new supply agreements, there are Algeria - which in the months following the invasion became our main gas supplier - Egypt, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Obviously, since a large part of the gas that will arrive from these new supply sources is in liquefied state and must therefore be returned to a gaseous state in order to be used as an energy source, it is necessary for our country's regasification capacity to increase. Starting with the Piombino regasification plant, which would have the capacity to process 5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, but whose installation is still in a rather stagnant phase due to the opposition of local authorities, who do not want to have a plant of the usually in the vicinity of your city.
The CEO of the state-owned energy company Eni, Claudio Descalzi, said last week that Russian gas imports were key to increasing storage before the onset of winter, but that spring " it could be worse if we don't add regasification capacity. ”
The Ministry of Ecological Transition today announced that the target of 90% of gas storage has been reached in advance of the end-of-autumn deadline. "A goal made possible by the intense work carried out by the government in recent months, thanks also to Snam and the support of Gse and Arera - commented Minister Roberto Cingolani -. This result allows us to aim for an even more objective. ambitious, which we will work on in the coming weeks, aimed at reaching 92-93% of storage filling, so as to guarantee greater flexibility in the event of peaks in winter consumption ".