Gas in the Italian energy industry

Gas plays a crucial role in the Italian energy industry. Fuel consumption has grown significantly compared to the 70.5 billion cubic metres in 2002. Demand for gas in Italy in 2010 amounted to 83 billion cubic metres, up 4.96 billion cubic metres (+6.4%) compared to 2009. The increase related to all sectors and, in particular, the residential and tertiary sector (+7.1%), the industrial sector (+7%) and the thermoelectric sector (+4.4%).
The share of natural gas for electricity consumption in the country has grown from 31% in 2002 to approximately 37% in 2010 mainly at the expense of the consumption of oil products which fell from 48.9% in 2002 to approximately 39% in 2010. The decline is mainly evident in the electricity generation sector, due to the emergence of natural gas, combined-cycle technology which combines high efficiency with lower emissions. The thermoelectric production from natural gas has increased from 99 TWh in 2002 to approximately 153 TWh in 2010, with a total increase of 54%.
Natural gas has been the only fossil fuel affected by the growth, with an average annual increase of 2%.
The growth in demand was met by an increase in imports, which rose from approximately 69.3 billion cubic metres in 2009, to 75.3 billion cubic metres in 2010. The role of imports as a percentage of total supply over the past period, net of storage, is 90%.