Gas and war, Italy too is in pre-warning like Germany. Our country activated the first of three emergency stages on February 26, the Germany has decided on the pre-warning on March 30. It is no coincidence that the alert was triggered in the two European countries that most depend on gas supplies arriving from Russia. The war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine which – despite the initial reaffirmed Russian will to guarantee supplies – threatens to slow down (or even suspend) the supply of gas by Gazprom, the Russian energy giant.
Putin's decision to ask for the payment of gas supply contracts in rubles rather than in euros or dollars as envisaged in the contracts currently in force with Gazprom has also made the situation increasingly tense. The request was firmly rejected by the European Union: the payment in rubles - given the volatility of the Russian currency, heavily affected by the sanctions and collapsed after the invasion of Ukraine - would entail a higher cost for Europe which can be estimated at an increase by 15% according to some sources. In addition to being, from a tactical point of view, a way to circumvent the sanctions.
Gas and war: the three degrees of alarm and the risk of rationing
The first stage, announced in Parliament by Prime Minister Mario Draghi with the change in Italian energy policy it was decided by Mite, the Ministry of Ecological Transition, after having heard the technical emergency and monitoring committee of the national gas system.
We are therefore in early warning. The second stage of alert is precisely the alarm, the third the emergency. Decreeing the state of emergency - the highest level - means that the market can no longer function and extraordinary measures are taken to better manage the situation: ranging from the use of strategic storage, to the reduction of the maximum temperature thresholds for heating, to the interruption of supplies or in any case to their interruptibility for the industrial sector. Industry also includes thermoelectric plants for the production of electricity. In fact, let's not forget that 60% of electricity is produced in Italy with gas-fired thermoelectric plants.
In phases 1 and 2 of the alert, however, the market functions regularly but is carefully monitored in order to act promptly if the risks on supplies increase.
Finally, it should be remembered that gas in Italy comes from Russia but not only: we receive gas from Algeria, Libya, Azerbaijan (the famous Tap).
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