Italy’s Eni reports fourth daily shortfall of Russian gas supplies

ROME (Reuters) – Russia’s Gazprom has told Italy’s Eni that it would deliver similar gas supplies on Saturday to those it sent in recent days, Eni said in a statement, signalling a fourth consecutive daily shortfall.

Eni said on Friday it would receive only half of the gas it had requested from Gazprom, while on Thursday it received only 65% of the volumes it had requested and on Wednesday was sent 85% of what it wanted.

“Gazprom announced that today it will deliver volumes of gas in line with the quantities delivered in recent days,” Eni said, giving no further details.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that reductions in supply were not premeditated and were related to maintenance issues, but Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has dismissed this explanation as a “lie”.

(Editing by Crispian Balmer)