The energy decree is expected “in days” which, in addition to the measures to strengthen energy safety and accelerate the transition, will have to deal with the issue of gas prices and electricity. The Minister of the Environment and Energy Safety, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, is considering in particular to “add an article” to dissolve the gap of the gap between the Italian gas price (PSV) and that of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (TTF), the main reference market for the exchange of gas in Europe, estimated today in 2 euros per MWH.
The chosen formula, explained the minister on the sidelines of Gastech, the three days dedicated to the sector, is to “reset the two euros negative on the 6 billion (of cubic meters, editor’s note) incoming from Passo Gries”, the pass with Switzerland from which the gas of Northern Europe comes. The solution indicated by the minister is to “reimburse the two euros of difference, overturning them on the other 58 billion” of the gases imported nationally. Energy companies, in particular in the chemical and steel and steel sectors, have been denouncing the weight of a higher Italian price for months than the European one. An anomaly that Bruxelles also observes, after having already opened the dossier on the gas market reform and on the possibility of supporting the Ttf Other reference hubs to reduce volatility.
The theme is intertwined with that of the diversification of supplies, in particular gas. After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the sanctions on Moscow for the EU it has become the main road to achieve the objective of energy independence. «We managed to decrease our energy dependence from 50% to 20%. But the road is still long and this has had repercussions, for example the increase in energy costs, “says Juul Jorgensen, general director for the energy of the European Commission. Just to accelerate on this goal, Italy has focused on the US GNL, at the center of a “strategic” understanding by the government. The United States “are reliable partners” on the energy front, assures the secretary within the United States, Douglas Burgum. “We need the gas in the European energy system that will continue to be part of our energy consumption in the coming decades,” he adds.
Moreover, the gas, in its different forms, will be “long part of the global energy supply”, says Pichetto in accordance with those present at the initiative. Italy has optimized its rejection capacity which, with the two floating lines in Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, will reach 28 billion cubic meters, a value equal to what imported from Russia.
Meanwhile, from the industrial front, the CEO of Eni Claudio Descalzi stresses that the gas has a “stable price towards rise”, also considering that “electrification in general is requesting a greater gase contribution”, a perspective that “goes against what was said four five years ago, when it was said in a few years the gas will no longer need. You have to be very careful to make predictions, because then you do not make investments and you enter a scarcity that leads to price growth, “he concludes.