Russia’s Gazprom has halted gas supplies to Italy’s Eni, blaming a transport problem in Austria, the Italian energy giant said on Saturday.
“Gazprom informed us that it could not confirm the delivery of the quantities requested for today because gas transport through Austria is not possible,” Eni said in a statement.
As a result, “Russian gas flows to Eni via the Tarvisio entry point are not flowing,” it said.
Most of the Russian gas delivered to Italy travels through Ukraine through the Trans Austria Gas Pipeline (TAG) to Tarvisio in northern Italy on the border with Austria.
Later in the day, Gazprom said in a statement that the transport of Russian gas through Austria had been suspended “due to the Austrian operator’s refusal to confirm the transport nominations”.
“The reason is related to the regulatory changes that took place in Austria at the end of September,” she added.
“Gazprom is working with Italian buyers to solve the problem.”
In Austria, the regulatory authority E-Control announced that the new rules that came into force on Saturday “have been known to all market participants for months”.
It expects “everyone to adapt and take the necessary actions to meet their commitments”.
The problems are related to “contractual details” related to gas transit to Italy, it said on Twitter.
Before the war in Ukraine, Italy imported 95 percent of its gas consumption – about 45 percent of which came from Russia.
Outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi has signed new deals with other gas producers to reduce Italy’s dependence on Russia, which has been reduced to 25% as of June, while accelerating the shift to renewable energy.