Russian Gas Supplies to Italy have Resumed
Gas supplies from Russia to Italy, which broke off on Tuesday because of the accident at the Baumgarten Austrian gas distribution center, were resumed last night, Reuters reported.
From 8pm Greenwich time, Italy again received Russian gas, the operator of the Italian gas transmission network Snam said. Italy has announced a state of emergency yesterday because of stopping supplies, although it stressed that it is not threatened by an immediate energy crisis as there are enough gas reserves. Earlier today, it was reported that transit supplies through the gas hub were resumed and the gas transmission lines were operating at full capacity.
Baumgartan passes 40 billion cubic meters of gas annually, which is about 10 percent of Europe's gas imports. Most of the gas is coming from Russia and Norway, which is then shipped to Germany, Italy, France, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary, and the gas for reversal supplies to Ukraine passes through it. The Central European gas hub is among the three largest gas distribution companies in Europe and is an international trading platform for gas. In an explosion that happened due to technical reasons, one person died and 21 were injured. Following the accident, the export sub-division of Russian Gazprom began to work on alternative routes to prevent supply disruptions.