Italian gas imports drop 3% in February
Italian gas imports fell 3.3% in February compared with the same month in 2010, while consumption fell 4.4% year on year. The largest drop in imports came from the Libyan GreenStream pipeline, which has been closed since 22 February, and the Swiss Transitgas link, which was shut for six months last year and continued to undergo re-routing work in February.
Flows from Libya to Gela in February fell 38.3% to 538 million cubic metres (Mm³), according to data from the Ministry for Economic Development (Mse). Supplies from Libya since the beginning of the year went down 24.8% to 1.3 billion cubic metres (Gm³).
Supplies entering Passo Gries along the Transitgas link through Switzerland fell 29.6% to 795Mm³ last month. The level in January and February totalled 1.7Gm³, down 20.9% year on year.
Deliveries from the Trans Tunisian Pipeline Company (TTPC), which provides gas from Algeria, dropped by 8.1% to 2.3Gm³ in February. Political unrest in Algeria and Tunisia in February caused concern that the pipeline would be interrupted, but it remained open.
Italy's imports from Russia increased significantly as a result of the GreenStream shutdown. Flows through the Trans Austria Gasleitung (TAG) went up 34.1% to 2.5Gm³ in February and 34.8% to 5.2Gm³ for the first two months of the year.
National consumption amounted to just under 9Gm³ in February and 19.6Gm³ in January and February, down 3% year on year. SS
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