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The cut in gas supplies from Moscow continues. The storage mechanism could be further jeopardized in the event of prolonged lowering, i.e. the gas reserves that are used for the winter could slow down simply because of the high gas prices.
The issue of stockpiles is therefore precisely the focus of the government’s work, which will be busy this week taking stock of the situation, identifying measures for a stockpiling plan and assessing the possibility of raising the alert level.
From pre-alarm to alarm
In fact, on Tuesday, June 21st, the meeting of the Technical Committee for Emergency and Natural Gas Monitoring set up at the Ministry of Ecological Transition is scheduled: a meeting of a technical nature, but at which the subject of the possible increase of will be on the table current status pre-alarm to alarm . In the middle of the week, perhaps on Wednesday, Minister Roberto Cingolani will assess the situation with the committee: a meeting that gas utilities are also expected to attend. Only then can Prime Minister Mario Draghi take stock with the ministers concerned.
Deposits 54% full but 90% must be met
The current situation provides that deliveries from Moscow will continue with halved volumes. But if the cuts are not having an impact on citizens at the moment, given that we are in the summer and supply is currently still higher than demand, we look to winter with concern. The deposits are 54% full, but it is necessary to reach 90%, and the price increase has led to the fact that companies that buy the gas at a lower price and store the extra in normal summer periods have caused the market to slow down to have. with the incentives introduced in recent months no longer being sufficient.
New incentive hypothesis
In order to secure the winter, a number of possible interventions are being considered, ranging from the introduction of new incentives (we look in particular at Germany, which offers a wide range of public guarantees) to the moral persuasion of large suppliers (such as Eni , Enel, Edison, local utilities ). It is not excluded that the Snam network manager may make another contribution along with the others, which had contributed 700 million cubic meters to the start of the storage campaign in April.