OREANDA-NEWS  Italian Minister of Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Piqueta-Frattini has promised that the new government will continue the line of completely replacing Russian gas and abandoning it by mid-2024.

Italy received up to 29 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Russia, which accounted for 40 percent of the country's total demand. Italy decided to abandon Russian energy resources after the start of a special operation in Ukraine on February 24.

Former Minister for Environmental Modernization and Transformation Roberto Cingolani said earlier that the republic's dependence on Russian gas was reduced from 40 to 20 percent. By mid-2024, the authorities want to completely abandon supplies from Russia. So far, it is compensated by an increase in purchases from alternative suppliers, among them Algeria.