A resolute “no” to the maintenance of additional natural gas reserves in Italy is said electricity producers (Mytilineos, Iron, Motor Oil and ESAH) emphasizing in the context of the RAE public consultations on the preventive action plan that there are no benefits to the security of supply in the country. The plan proposes, among other things, to store 1.14 terawatt-hours of electricity in Italy’s underground infrastructure. Commenting on the plan, ESAH (Greek Association of Independent Electricity Companies) emphasizes that “the RAE proposal does not bring the expected benefits to natural gas consumers, market participants and the national economy as a whole. The reason is that the limited ability to import natural gas from Italy significantly reduces the benefits of storing natural gas on behalf of Greece in underground storage in Italy, while the administrative costs of such an action, on the contrary, will be especially high.” Mytilineos says the company’s value is expected to exceed 50 million euros, but stocks in Italy would be in full danger if there was a warning. And this is because there is no possibility of additional availability of TAP for imports from a neighboring country, since its capacity is already reserved for the quantities imported every day by suppliers and DESFA.

Mytilineos proposes, on the one hand, that suppliers have the discretion to choose how to fulfill the obligation to maintain sufficient gas reserves, and, on the other hand, believes that strengthening Revitoussa with the former Soviet Union is sufficient to cover domestic needs. Iron also notes that “the expected benefit of this promotion is negligible for our country’s security of supply, while the cost to participants, which will then have to be recouped through a supply security fee, is disproportionately high.” In addition, Zhelezo argues that the new mechanism with a cap on the wholesale market does not allow the cost of supplying natural gas from the market to be recovered. For these reasons, he considers the storage in Italy to be inefficient and objects to Greece asking the Commission to release it from this obligation, arguing that it has “in the works” investments in the underground gas storage in Kavala, which, in fact, are included in the European projects of common interest.

Motor Oil, for its part, notes that this commitment should be made by DESFA. “The maintenance of natural gas reserves in Italy’s storage infrastructure should be carried out by the ESFA operator and made available to them on an energy exchange platform.”

On the contrary, DESFA advocates gas storage in Italy and its availability through energy exchange. Finally, Prometheus Gas does not appear negative, but states that the volumes to be stored should be calculated based on each supplier’s share of the country’s natural gas imports, not their market share.