Italy’s Eni to receive lower gas volumes from Gazprom on Wednesday

MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s Eni said it would receive about 27 million cubic metres of gas from Russia’s Gazprom on Wednesday, down from the daily average volumes of around 34 million in recent days.

Eni added it would provide further updates in the event of significant changes in delivery volumes communicated by Gazprom.

On Monday state-controlled Russian energy giant Gazprom said flows through its Nord Stream 1 pipeline would fall starting from Wednesday, adding it would cut supplies to Germany to just 20% of the pipeline’s capacity.

In Italy the reduction of gas flows is currently less marked.

Last Thursday Eni said that Gazprom had increased supplies to about 36 million cubic metres from a daily volumes of some 21 million in the previous days during a planned maintenance of the Nord Stream pipeline.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Italy has reduced its reliance on Moscow’s energy partly through agreements with African countries. Algeria has emerged as Rome’s biggest gas supplier in recent months.

Last year Russia accounted for 40% of Italy’s imports of natural gas, being the country’s major supplier.

The European Union has repeatedly accused Russia of resorting to energy blackmail, while the Kremlin says the shortfalls have been caused by maintenance issues and the effect of Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini and Maria Pia Quaglia; Editing by Keith Weir)