Italy deflects on NS2, argues for energy diversity
Addressing questions about the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, Italy’s foreign minister said June 28 that Europe needed a more diverse energy mix, including hydrogen as an alternative fuel source.
Italy is among the Western allies concerned about Russia’s grip on the European energy sector. Nord Stream 2 is the second string of a twin pipeline network that delivers natural gas from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. With Russian gas supplier Gazprom accused of holding a monopoly, Western powers are concerned about Moscow’s influence in the European market.
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During a meeting in Rome with US secretary of state Anthony Blinken, Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio deflected on the specifics when asked by reporters about Nord Stream 2, saying only that Italy was bolstering European energy diversity with the completion last year of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, which carries gas from the Azeri waters of the Caspian Sea to Europe.
“And Italy continues to believe that as far as energy goes and as far as energy production goes, we need to invest more and more in new technologies and we have to have a diversified energy mix,” he added. “We have, at the moment, a number of European programmes underway, such as the one that aims to promote hydrogen production.”
His comments followed the May announcement that a trial project that utilised a natural gas/hydrogen blend successfully heated the furnaces at the Forgiatura A. Vienna steelmaking plant in Milan
Led by energy infrastructure developer Snam, engineering consultancy RINA and steelmaker GIVA Group, the blend required no plant modifications, had no impact on plant equipment and did nothing to alter the characteristics of the end product.
Project developers estimate that hydrogen blends used at three of GIVA’s steel forging plants could avoid as much as 15,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.
On Nord Stream, Blinken made no mention of the pipeline. US president Joe Biden has shied away from exerting further pressure on the pipeline, arguing additional sanctions on a nearly-finished pipeline is a waste of political capital. Nevertheless, the US government remains opposed to the pipeline, saying it undermines European energy security by keeping links to Russian energy in place.