Italy plans to quickly start filling its strategic gas stocks in 2025, the country’s energy minister said on Thursday, as Rome expects wholesale gas prices to rise during the summer.
Gas is typically purchased and stored between April and October, when demand and prices are lower, to be sold later in winter when prices rise.
But Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin told parliament that Rome would begin filling procedures as early as February to avoid the risks of being caught off guard by unusual price movements.
“Due to current geopolitical tensions and possible speculation, there is a risk for 2025 that wholesale gas prices will be higher next summer than the following winter, as was the case during the energy crisis in 2022,” he added.
Germany is doing the same thing by studying the possibility of contractors receiving subsidies to fill gas storage sites.
Fears of an energy shock rose after Ukraine refused to renew a gas transit deal with Russia, marking the end of decades of Moscow’s dominance of European energy markets.
The benchmark first-month contract at the Dutch TTF center was little changed at 49.67 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), touching the highest levels in more than a year, LSEG data showed on Thursday.
-Mr Pichetto also renewed calls for the European Union to extend an emergency cap on gas prices and prevent a possible energy price shock.
Brussels introduced a price limit of 180 euros per megawatt hour (eur/MWh) in December 2022, after months of crippling energy prices caused by Russia slashing gas supplies following its invasion of Ukraine .
The system was never implemented and the European Union intends to let it expire as planned at the end of this month.
“We are campaigning for structural mechanisms to be put in place to prevent speculation from driving up gas prices on the TTF,” Mr Pichetto said.
Belgium
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