Fuel, Pichetto: ‘Rationing if necessary; total reserves would last one month in a “shock” scenario’

Milan, 5 Apr. (LaPresse) – ‘It is clear that we are ready for rationing, if necessary. We are assessing various possible courses of action, but the conditions for intervention are not yet in place.’ This was stated by Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, in an interview with “Repubblica” regarding the energy crisis triggered by the conflict in Iran. ‘A special commission is working at the ministry to draw up the emergency plan,’ emphasises Pichetto, adding that ‘we will see where and how to intervene; we are calculating the possible measures’, although ‘we certainly wouldn’t react with ‘bicycle Sundays’ as we did fifty years ago’, explains the minister, who believes that ‘actions must be tailored to the current situation’. ‘We know that if everything comes to a standstill, we can carry on for a month with our reserves,’ adds Pichetto, referring to a “shock” scenario of a generalised shutdown, but for the minister ‘it is possible that things will turn out differently; the shortage could have a greater impact on one sector or another, or on one resource or another’.