The axis with Austria moving towards treaties how Italy can

The axis with Austria moving towards treaties: how Italy can respond to the Russian gas blockade

All ‘Eni it is at snam He is optimistic about the steps Italy can take in response to Austria stopping Russian gas supplies and “tracking down” Gazprom in the energy war between Moscow and the West. The passport of Tarvisio sees over 40 million cubic meters of gas awaiting redistribution and supplies to Italy blocked for what Russia has defined as “technical problems” in relations with Vienna.

Gazprom said in a statement on Saturday that the transportation of Russian gas through Austria had been suspended “due to the refusal of the Austrian operator to confirm the dates of transportation”. “The reason is related to the regulatory changes that took place in Austria at the end of September,” the Moscow giant added. In Austria, regulator E-Control said the new rules, which came into effect on Saturday, had been known to all market participants for months. And the Huffington Post points out that the new Service agreement between Gazprom and E-Control it should have been activated on October 1, but Gazprom does not intentionally complete it with its signature. He then added that another topic on the ground could be changing market dynamics.

It is well known that Gazprom has included themHolland among the countries “sanctioned” for cutting energy supplies. And from October 1st, the place of delivery of the Russian blue gold to the six-legged friend changed from Amsterdam to the Austrian border crossing at Baumgarten, for whose activation Moscow has to pay 20 million euros as a deposit to Vienna.

In this respect, Huffington points out that Italy and Eni have many options available to track down Moscow for a possible bluff to understand if the current situation falls into Russia’s now well-known war of nerves and psychological gas. Giuseppe Colombo He stressed that “Eni could take over the capacity directly to replace Gazprom’s eventual defaults”. In other words, to advance the resource quota owed by Austria to the Moscow giant in order to enable an orderly flow of gas. Gazprom’s lack of hard currency, which has to convert 80% of its earnings into rubles as part of the currency resistance strategy imposed by Russia’s central bank and Elvira Nabiullina, could play a role in the Moscow major’s troubles. And Rome can build an axis Vienna, Capital far from harming Russia to avoid a new energy offensive. Already in June and July, Gazprom had put pressure on Italy and Austria by stopping deliveries to Rome and Vienna; The line in both capitals is to agree not to give Russia new spaces for provocations.

With a drop in dependency compared to pre-Ukraine times, Italy and Austria could suffer permanent cuts, but not to the point where winter energy security would be threatened thanks to full storage: Rome has the weight of Russia from 45% to 18% reduces energy mix, while Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced in August that direct supplies from Russia would be reduced to less than half. And in the event of a crisis, the inflow from Italy can bring gas from Italy’s storage facilities to Vienna.

So the line is clear: on the one hand maximum compliance with contractual obligations, on the other hand veiled political pressure to look at Moscow’s papers and expect similar commercial transparency. No provocation or misstep meanwhile, to give no excuse for more tears, is expected from Eni and other big names, who are proceeding with caution. All knowing that the Tarvisio issue can be resolved in the chaos of bureaucracy and energy policies in times of sanctions and commercial tug-of-war and that for European energy would be the real atom Final stop at Nord Stream. “Black swan” on the European gas market, any crisis in Tarvisio would seem like a hiccup in comparison. But given the possibility that Russia needs the revenues from gas supplies to the rest of Europe even more. Which it would be self-destructive to give up today.