Italian Transit No Longer a Pipe Dream

摘要

Italy could become a major transit route for gas into northern Europe after Belgium's Fluxys sanctioned a project last week to make its pipelines across Switzerland and western Germany bi-directional by 2018, allowing them to start flowing gas north as well as south. The move is in line with EU policy to make Europe's gas system more flexible and thus more resilient to disruptions, such as Gazprom's shock move in January 2009 to halt flows via Ukraine to the west It is the latest in a series of investments over the past six years that has included making Austria's TAG pipe to Italy bi-directional since 2011, after only being able to flow Russian gas into Italy (EC Nov. 14' 14). Similar grid enhancements may offer new opportunities for US LNG sup- plies and even Chinese investment.