Two significant news on the increasingly strategic gas front. One comes directly from Russia, bouncing off international agencies: Gazprom would be ready to restart, at a reduced flow, gas exports to Europe through Nord Stream next Thursday, 21 July, at the end of the maintenance period. The other leaks from Brussels, on the eve of the presentation of the energy plan: it is the case that the European states are preparing for the rationing necessary to reduce consumption to face the coming winter. The first news has the effect of cooling the price of gas. In Amsterdam, after a slightly higher day, prices fell to € 153 per megawatt hour and then closed at € 154.46 (-1.8%), at the levels of the beginning of July. The situation remains tense. As evidenced by the communication to Gazprom’s European customers, reported by the BBC and dated 14 July, in which it was warned that supplies through the Nord Stream gas pipeline, suspended on 11 July, cannot be guaranteed. The uncertainty that derives from these communications leads to the second news of the day. The energy plan that the EU will present tomorrow in Brussels is “based on the worst possible scenario”, ie the cut in natural gas supplies from Russia. European Commission chief spokesman Eric Mamer, during the press briefing in Brussels, explains why a plan is needed based on energy savings and also on the use of coal to produce electricity, instead of gas. “We work on all possible scenarios and one of the scenarios is that the flows do not restart” through the Nordstream 1 gas pipeline, after the ‘technical pause’ imposed by Gazprom for maintenance works. The details of the ‘Save energy for a safe winter’ plan “will be released tomorrow”, adds Mamer, recalling that one of the strategies adopted in the face of the war in Ukraine is the diversification of gas supply sources. A diversification that, in the face of the protracted war in Ukraine, is imposed by the numbers. In this regard, the spokesman for Energy Tim McPhie recalls that in the first half of 2022 the deliveries of LNG (liquefied natural gas) from the US to the EU amounted to about 30 billion cubic meters, against 22 billion cubic meters in throughout 2021. Imports of LNG from the US now amount to 46% of total LNG imports. In 2021, the EU imported around 155 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia, equal to around 43% of total gas imports, but the same numbers make it necessary to look realistically at what may happen. For this reason, the EU plan calls for a reduction in the demand for gas, without obliging because the technical conditions are not yet in place. The document that will be presented tomorrow, in essence, will for the first time put in black and white the observation that with the blocking of supplies from Russia, an eventuality considered probable, rationing would be inevitable. And that if you want to prevent a shock, you need to prepare in time.