ROME, April 27. /TASS/. Italy’s energy infrastructure operator SNAM, which transports gas to Italy, has said that Russian gas is being delivered to the country without interruptions.
"Gas flows from Russia to Italy via Tarvisio are steady," the ANSA news agency quotes the company’s spokesman as saying.
Mediaset journalists say that Italy has begun to gradually reduce the consumption of Russian gas. According to Mediaset reports, on April 1 the country received a little more than 3 million cubic meters of gas from Russia, on April 7, a little more than 1.4 million cubic meters, and on April 19, 0.8 million cubic meters. Polled experts speculate that demand from Italy has reduced, as the country’s authorities have set a task of easing dependence on Russian fuel.
Gazprom on April 26 notified the importer companies in Poland and Bulgaria it was terminating gas supplies starting from April 27 due to their refusal to perform final settlements in the Russian ruble. Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 23 issued orders to sell gas to unfriendly countries on the condition of ruble payments. He stressed that Russia would refuse to accept payments under such contracts in the discredited foreign currencies, including the dollar and the euro.