Gas, all the lectures by Bernabé (former Eni) to the EU, Draghi and Cingolani
Bernabè, former Eni number one and today president of Acciaierie d'Italia, criticizes Europe for having "dismantled the integrated monopolies" in the energy market, such as that of the six-legged dog, says that gas storage will not be enough, that rationing is needed and that the future government will have to provide new support. All the details
Direct and indirect messages to the European Union and the Italian government. These are those that emerge from an interview in the newspaper La Stampa with Franco Bernabè, former CEO of Eni and Telecom Italia, today president of Acciaierie d'Italia (formerly Ilva).
THE ATTACK ON EUROPE
According to him, Brussels would have proceeded to "dismantle the system of large suppliers who had guaranteed the availability and competitive prices of methane for decades", which on the TTF (the European reference hub) has reached very high levels, although currently below the records of recent months: today it is trading around 164 euros per megawatt hour, but it had also exceeded 320.
"In the Eighties and Nineties", Bernabè argues, "the market structure was much more solid: in Europe there was a large internal production of gas and supplies from abroad were managed by three or four large buyers who were able to negotiate from positions of strength with Gazprom or with Algeria ”.
In 2021, the European Union purchased about 40 percent of the total imported gas from Russia alone (Italy's percentages were roughly the same). This long relationship of extreme dependence on a single seller – who for more than a year, but especially since the invasion of Ukraine, is increasingly limiting flows – is the main cause of the crisis in prices and supplies.
THE DISMANTLING OF MONOPOLIES
According to the former Eni executive, the European Union “has reformed the market [energy, ed ] by making it competitive on the demand side without being able to influence the supply side. The big buyers were dismantled, the structure weakened. And this situation cannot be remedied ”immediately.
With the aim of creating a competitive market, the European authorities “dismantled the integrated monopolies: Eni had the infrastructures with Snam, the distribution with Italgas. At a certain point this no longer went well in Brussels. In addition, he asked to dismantle the long-term contracts, with which Eni and the other European subjects had full control ”.
THE ROOF AT THE PRICE OF GAS
The European Union, says Bernabè, does not “have a great desire” to impose a price cap on the imported natural gas. This is a measure that could contribute to lowering inflation, but it could also reduce the availability of fuel for the continent: the ships carrying LNG could in fact head towards countries willing to pay more.
“It is ridiculous to think of a cap [only, ed ] on Russian gas that is almost gone now,” says Bernabè. In fact, supplies from Russia are very scarce, and in recent days Gazprom has also interrupted the flows to Italy, without providing convincing explanations: it seems, however, that a solution has been found to reactivate them.
THE JUDGMENTS ON THE GOVERNMENT DRAGHI
“The stocks that we have correctly filled will not be enough”, says Bernabè, “and it will take a continuous flow from abroad: however, there will be no Russian gas”. At the moment, the share of Russian gas on the total imported from Italy is quite low, around 10 per cent. Gas storage, on the other hand, is 91.1 per cent full , a value higher than the European average (89.3 per cent).
"We can only optimize the availability of methane during the winter with a rationing strategy that minimizes damage: but we need an extremely detailed plan in order to protect essential services", adds the president of Acciaierie d'Italia, who invites the government to protect "energy-intensive" industries such as steel.
In the interview, Bernabè favorably judged the support measures for families and businesses against high bills implemented by the Draghi government, arguing that "the next governments must continue to do so".
– Read also: What the Meloni government will do against the maxi electricity and gas bills
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/franco-bernabe-critiche-ue-gas/ on Wed, 05 Oct 2022 07:44:24 +0000.