Italy may increase gas reserves amid concerns over rising prices

Italy is taking measures to increase gas reserves amid concerns that prices will remain high for a long time. This was reported by Bloomberg agency on January 23.

Italy has the second largest European Union (EU) storage facilities after Germany. Energy Minister Gilberto Piketto-Fratin said at parliamentary hearings that the authorities plan to hold auctions to sell places in gas storages for the next winter already in February.

The agency specifies that the gas storage season in Europe usually starts during the period of reduced heating demand in April and lasts until the end of October.

"We, together with the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, are assessing the possibility of postponing auctions for the allocation of at least part of the storage capacity," Piketto-Fratin said.

According to Bloomberg, maintaining significant fuel reserves has become critical for Europe's energy security after the loss of a large part of Russian pipeline flows.

The day before, the head of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU should give up Russian gas and reduce prices for energy resources. According to her, energy prices in Europe are higher than in the U.S. and China, and including different in the EU countries.

Before that, on January 3, it was reported that gas prices in European countries on the first trading day of the year showed the maximum since 2023 amid the cessation of supplies from Russia. Before that, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova noted that the cessation of gas supplies from Russia through Ukraine weakens the economic potential of the European Union.

On January 1, 2025, Gazprom announced the suspension of gas supplies through Ukraine. On the same day, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo said that this would have drastic consequences for the European Union, but not for Russia.

At the end of August 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (his term expired on May 20, 2024) said that the country would not extend the gas transit agreement with Russia, which expired at the end of 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin later pointed out that Moscow did not refuse to transit gas through Ukraine.