Italy minister signals late winter crunch if Russia halts gas

Italy would face a potential gas supply crunch at the end of the coming winter if Russia were to totally halt supplies, Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani said on Wednesday.

Cingolani said the current pattern of supplies would allow the country to be able to fill its gas storage network to 90% of capacity by October.

Assuming Russian gas supplies stopped completely at the beginning of winter, storage would be sufficient until February, he told a news conference.