Descalzi: need to review Russian gas stop from 2027. Major oil shortage
The CEO of Eni, speaking at the League's School of Political Education: 'What happened in the Gulf is the most important event in the last 40 years'
"Last weekend we had 600 service stations where diesel was out of stock: our fault for keeping prices too low, but if 600 Eni stations remain without diesel there is a possible problem". So said Claudio Descalzi, ceo of Eni, in his speech at the eleventh edition of the League's Political Training School. As Italia 'we don't have our crude, we don't have powerful refining and when there are emergencies we can no longer say let's go to Germany or the United States'.
"The problem right now is not the prices but the volumes" of oil and gas: "What happened in the Gulf is the most important event in the last 40 years from the point of view of the fall in supply: right now 4.5 million barrels of product are missing plus another 12 million barrels of crude oil, so something important," the Eni ceo added. "We are in a situation where either you have the capacity to produce what you need or you risk," the manager said, "we not only don't have refining but we also don't have production, so all the inconsistencies of these last 20 years in front of these stress tests we are paying for them.
"Jet fuel is the most critical part: Europe has a gap and has to import 35% of jet fuel and we need to understand how to find it and at what prices," Claudio Descalzi continued. The manager sees fewer problems at this stage 'for gasoline, for crude oil even if you have to have the refineries to process it, while for diesel-diesel you have to compete with other areas. I hope that this problem is so important worldwide that it will bring everyone to milder advice'.
"I think it is necessary to suspend the ban that will be triggered on 1 January 2027 on 20 billion cubic metres of gas coming from Russia" to Europe, Descalzi also said. 'In my opinion on gas it is necessary to review,' he explained, 'otherwise who is going to produce these extra 20 billion? For all the power stations, flexibility on the grid is given by gas; it is not given by renewables that cannot be turned off, it is not given by nuclear power that we do not have but which would have much longer swicth off times, so we need gas'.
'As the Italia government is doing,' Descalzi added, 'I would also suggest suspending or redistributing the Ets in order to find a way not to penalise an industrial sector that already has to pay a lot for energy and if it also has to pay taxes, we have a social system that runs risks: you cannot be radical and dogmatic, but you have to have common sense in an extraordinary situation.
