Italy's state-owned energy exchange says Russia's Gazprom has said it will only partially meet Italian energy giant Eni’s request for gas supplies on June 20.
The statement came after Germany said it was preparing further measures to curb its consumption of natural gas and pivot away from already reduced Russian gas deliveries.
Russian gas flows fell short of demand in Italy, Germany, and other European countries last week over Gazprom’s demand that they abandon hard currencies for payments in rubles since Western sanctions hit. Another shortfall on June 20 would represent the sixth day in a row that Italy has had to deal with a shortfall.
The shortfalls have boosted prices and raised concern that Europe may struggle to build up storage ahead of the winter.
The Italian company said on June 17 it got half of the gas it had requested, while on June 16 it received 65 percent of the volumes requested. Supplies received on June 18 and June 19 were similar in size to deliveries in recent days, it said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on June 16 that reductions in supply were not premeditated and were related to maintenance issues.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who visited Kyiv on June 16 with the leaders of three other European Union countries, dismissed this explanation as a "lie."
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck was quoted on June 19 as saying that gas consumption “must continue to fall, and more gas must go into the storage facilities, otherwise it will be really tight in winter."
A paper quoted by the German Press Agency dpa said the government in Berlin is providing billions of euros in funding to support using less gas for power and industry.
The paper suggests that coal-fired power plants would help make up the shortfall.
Storage facilities will also be filled further ahead of the onset of winter, it said.
Europeans have imposed unprecedented financial, travel, diplomatic, and other sanctions on Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered tens of thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24 in Europe's biggest foreign invasion since World War II.
Gazprom announced repeated reductions this week of its deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany, citing technical problems.
Habeck said at the time that the new developments were political and “clearly show the Russian side’s explanation is simply an excuse.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has resisted imposing curbs on customer consumption, saying "individual measures" would require having a broader price plan in place.
Germany is traditionally one of Russia's biggest gas customers.
Gazprom has already cut off supplies to Bulgaria, Poland, Finland, the Netherlands, and Denmark.