Gas, more flows from the US and Algeria: Italia's moves to cope with the impact of war
According to Snam's data, in the first four months of the year, the volumes arriving via pipeline in Mazara and LNG (liquefied natural gas) cargoes from the USA increased
Key points
Despite the heavy reverberations connected to the new front of conflict in the Middle East and the consequent volatility at the international level, the gas system in Italia has shown itself to be resilient and has managed to contain the consequences caused by frequent geopolitical shocks, leveraging a significant level of stocks (the bar marks, to date, 54% of stockpiles filled, 19 percentage points above the EU average) and diversification of sources. Proof of this can be seen in the latest data collected by Snam, which document the system's ability to 'replace' shortfalls related to the prolonged shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz with other channels, exploiting, in particular, the flexibility granted by liquefied gas transported by ship (LNG).
The impact of the crisis in the Gulf
In fact, if we look at the total amount of LNG cargoes arriving in Italia in the first four months of the year, the bar stands at 72, of which 42 from the United States, corresponding to about 60% of the total LNG volumes imported, and 13 from Qatar, to which African countries such as Algeria, Nigeria, and Mauritania/Senegal should be added. And it is precisely by observing the trend, between March and April, of the volumes relating to Qatar (with destination the regasification plant in Rovigo, Adriatic Lng) and the USA (directed, above all, to the Livorno and Piombino plants), that the first signs of a shift between the Qatar cargoes (down from 4 in March to the single arrival in April) and the American cargoes (up, instead, from 2 in March to 7 last month), the result of the effective strategy put in place by Edison to deal with the consequences of the force majeure notification made by Qatar Energy, with which the company has a 25-year contract of 6.4 billion cubic metres per year. Edison therefore took immediate action to replace the 12 cargoes impacted by the Qatar move (about 1.6 billion cubic metres) and did so by focusing mainly on American LNG: to date, 9 out of 12 cargoes have thus been covered for about 1 billion cubic metres.
Assistance from Algeria and Tap
The result is that liquefied gas transported by ship is becoming increasingly central to diversification. In the first four months, in fact, 7.1 billion cubic metres arrived, compared to the almost 22 billion in total injected into the network: 33% of the total, in second place after the Algerian gas arriving from Mazara del Vallo (Sicily). Which, together with Tap (the pipeline transporting Azeri gas to Europe and Italia), has guaranteed a huge assist in energy security. Here, too, Snam's data paint a clear picture: from January to April, in fact, incoming flows from Algeria increased by 4%, to 7.6 billion cubic metres (300 million cubic metres more than in the first four months of 2025), 35% of the total injected into the network. This is followed by the gas entering Melendugno (Apulia) through Tap, which, in the first four months of the year, remained the second largest source of gas supply by pipeline (3.2 billion cubic metres, 15% of the total), confirming the strategic nature of gas from the south for the continuity and security of the national system. On the other hand, flows from the North, specifically from the Tarvisio junction, have been gradually reduced, which has seen a reversal in transits downstream of the halt in the passage of Russian gas through Ukraine.
The acceleration on storage
Supporting the system at this stage is the third 'leg' of storage, the current level of which is well above the EU average and 26 percentage points above the German level. This is a significant gap that has been favoured both by a good starting point (at the close of the cold season, one month after the start of the conflict in the Gulf, Italian storages were 43.7% full, 15 percentage points above the rest of Europe) and by a synergic work between Snam, the government and Arera, which made it possible to allocate, with the auctions carried out by the company in the first half of April, a storage capacity equal to 17.5 of the 19 billion cubic metres available, such as to ensure the achievement of the 90 per cent fill target, already hit by Italia in 2025, two months ahead of the deadline set by Brussels. A goal that allowed Italy at that time to have full storage before winter began and to cover 27 per cent of the total gas injected into the grid
