Gas storage in Italy is being considered by the government

The storage of natural gas in Italy and secondarily in Bulgaria to ensure security of supply next winter are the scenarios being considered by the Ministry of Environment and Energy. Ensuring a sufficient supply of natural gas in EU storage is a key element of European security policy in the coming winter of 2022-2023.

The Commission last week presented its proposals, according to which “Member States are obliged to ensure that their underground gas storage tanks have been paid at least 80% of their capacity by 1 November 2022, a percentage which will be will reach 90% for the coming years, while there will be intermediate targets for the period from February to October “.

For countries – members that do not have gas storage – such as Greece – is required to ensure by November 1, agreements with countries that have storage, for quantities equivalent to 15% of annual gas consumption. In the case of Greece, the annual consumption of natural gas in 2020 was 5.8 billion cubic meters, which means that it is necessary to ensure a stored quantity of 0.9 billion cubic meters.

Bulgaria has a natural gas storage facility, with which the Greek DESFA system is interconnected (a second interconnection point will soon operate through the Greek-Bulgarian IGB pipeline). But Bulgaria’s underground warehouse has a relatively limited capacity of 0.6 billion cubic meters. Multiple, of the order of 20 billion cubic meters is the capacity of the warehouses in Italy, with which our country is interconnected through Albania with the TAP pipeline. Thus the required quantities can be secured on the basis of exchange agreements, with “withholding” of natural gas intended for the Italian market. TAP, it is recalled, transports natural gas from Azerbaijan through Turkey, Greece and Albania to Italy and has been in operation since last year.

For the security of supply of the Greek market, there is also the possibility of the long-term mooring of a ship transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the facilities of Revythousa, where the LNG that is transported there by ships is stored and gasified. But for this option there is the question of cost and availability.

The proposal for a regulation published by the EU last week takes into account the worst-case scenarios for the gas market. In particular, it is pointed out that the prices of natural gas next summer (period of low consumption when the warehouses are full) may be higher than in winter, as well as the possibility of interrupting the supply of natural gas through pipelines.

Greece has an infrastructure suitable for gas storage (it is the depleted deposit of Kavala, with a capacity of 530 million cubic meters), but it can not be used immediately. The tender for the development and operation of the warehouse by the HRDH is pending. However, our country has one of the best security of supply indicators in the region as it has multiple sources and supply routes (Russian gas via Turkey – Bulgaria through pipelines not passing through Ukraine, Azeri gas via TAP pipeline, interconnection with Turkey, Liquefied Gas in Revythousa).

Source: AMPE