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European countries report shortfall of Russian gas supplies

The supplies started falling short of the target amounts Wednesday when an 11.6% undersupply was registered

MOSCOW, February 3 (Itar-Tass) — Thursday, Italy was short of 20% of the amount of Russian natural gas it is supposed to receive daily, said the press service of the company Snam Rete Gas that operates the country’s biggest gas pipeline.

The passage of 87 million cubic meters of the fuel through the Tarvizio pipeline junction in the northeast of Italy was registered, while the expected amount stood at 109 million cubic meters.

The supplies started falling short of the target amounts Wednesday when an 11.6% undersupply was registered.

Italy’s major natural gas corporation, ENI, says the reduction of Russian gas supplies to this country in spite of an increase in consumption of the fuel caused by an unusually cold weather will not affect the procurement of energy resources on the nationwide scale, as it is getting the necessary amounts of gas from other suppliers, including the ones in North Africa.

Also Thursday, the Polish energy corporation Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo /PGNiG/ said the undersupply of gas from Russia stood at 7% of the daily amount.

Still, the corporation said it hoped the situation would come back to normal in a few days’ time.

“Over the past twenty-four hours, the Russian supplier Gazprom Export did not confirm PGNiG’s daily request and a shortfall of supplies amounting to 7or so percent has occurred,” it said, adding that the reduction of supplies concerns the Yamal transit pipeline.

PGNiG said it had addressed the Russian partners on the issue and it expected an answer from them.

Wednesday, PGNiG answered a request from the company Gaz-System S.A., the operator of industrial gas pipelines, and cut down the pumping of gas to a number of large industrial facilities, including some chemical factories.

The decision was caused by a surge of the nationwide demand for gas to 70 million cubic meters a day in the aftermath of the onset of severe frosts.

PGNiG gave the assurances, however, that except for the above said industrial facilities all the customers are getting natural gas in the amounts they need.