More gas in the network in June: here’s where it comes from and why we’re not at risk

Following the increase in May (+6 per cent), gas consumption rose again in June by 3 per cent, driven by higher demand from the thermal power sector (+11 per cent compared with the same period in 2025) due to the heatwave that began in May and continued in the following weeks, which accelerated gas demand from the residential and commercial sectors (+4 per cent). This is the picture painted by Snam, which paints a reassuring picture regarding supply despite the geopolitical turmoil.

If we look at supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG), we can see that the impact of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz on LNG was only felt in June (with a drop of half a billion cubic metres compared with the same month in 2025), as a result of the decline in gas supplies from Qatar following the damage caused by Iranian drones to the country’s liquefaction plants, starting with the one at Ras Laffan. Over the half-year, however, gas arriving by sea recorded a 5 per cent increase. And the trend is upwards when comparing the volumes of LNG arriving in Italia over the last three years: in fact, figures have risen from 7.6 billion cubic metres in 2024 to 10.3 billion cubic metres in 2025, reaching 10.7 billion in the first six months of this year.

But where did the nearly 11 billion cubic metres of LNG that arrived in Italia in the first half of the year come from? Of the 110 shipments that arrived in total, 70 ships came from the United States, 15 from Algeria, 13 from Qatar (which, as mentioned, was affected by the conflict between the US and Iran), 5 from Nigeria, and 2 shipments each from the Congo, Trinidad & Tobago, and Mauritania & Senegal, and 1 from Equatorial Guinea).

Overall, LNG accounted for 32 per cent of the gas fed into the network in the first six months of the year. Pipeline gas from Algeria remains in first place in the supplier rankings (35 per cent). Furthermore, when we take into account the gas arriving via the TAP pipeline from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan (15 per cent) and Libyan natural gas (1 per cent), it is clear that 83 per cent of the flows entering the national grid between January and June came via pipelines terminating in the south (Mazara del Vallo, the landing point for Algerian gas; Gela for Libyan gas; and Melendugno for Azerbaijani gas) and, via the regasification terminals, from the sea.

Thanks to diversification, therefore, the system has weathered the effects of the recent conflict and is preparing for the winter season by filling its storage facilities, with no critical issues reported so far. In fact, Italia has reached 69 per cent capacity, 19 points above the European average and 27 points above Germany. This figure places our country at the top of all European nations in terms of the volume of gas already stored.