Italy Plans To Stop Buying Gas From Russia In The Second Half Of 2024

A worker inspects pipelines at a gas compressor station on the Yamal-Europe pipeline near Nesvizh, about 130 km southwest of Minsk, December 2006. (ANTARA/Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko)

JAKARTA - Italy plans to cut reliance on Russian gas supplies in the second half of 2024, said Italian Transitional Minister for Ecology Roberto Cingolani in an interview broadcast on Tuesday May 3.

"We have to be independent in the second half of 2024, we can do it without importing Russian gas," Cingolani said in an interview with the daily La Repubblica.

Asked about Russia's proposed rouble gas payment mechanism, Cingolani said that the European Union (EU) Commission needed to take a "clear and unambiguous" political decision.

The clear decision, according to Cingolani, was to avoid the responsibility being transferred to the respective state governments as well as oil and gas companies.

Energy ministers of EU member states are holding emergency talks to discuss how to respond to Moscow's request that European buyers pay for Russian gas in rubles or face a cut in gas supplies.

Russia last week suspended gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland after the two countries refused to pay in rubles.

The EU countries are already planning to stop using Russian gas this year and have said they can work around the cessation of gas supplies.

Rules for gas payments can help protect the Russian economy from the impact of Western sanctions.

Russia supplies 40 percent of gas supplies to the EU and fulfills 26 percent of EU oil imports.

The European Commission will in late May unveil plans to end Europe's dependence on fossil fuels from Russia by 2027, including by expanding the use of renewable energy and renovating buildings to consume less energy.