(ANSA-AFP) - MILAN, OCT 3 - Italian giant Eni said Monday it is ready to provide a 20-million-euro guarantee to restart deliveries of Russian gas through Austria, after a stoppage blamed on regulatory changes. The gas delivery was suspended Saturday because Russia's Gazprom failed to provide a newly-imposed guarantee to the carrier transporting it from Austria to Italy, Eni's CEO Claudio Descalzi said. "We are seeing if we take over" and provide the 20 million euros, he said, adding that he hoped that "the problem can be resolved this week". "The stoppage is absolutely not due to geopolitical reasons," Descalzi said on the sidelines of a Rome conference.

Speaking about Gazprom, he added that "it is difficult to imagine that a company that wants to pay in rubles can provide guarantees in euros." Gazprom completely suspended gas deliveries to Eni on Saturday, citing the "impossibility of gas transport through Austria" due to a new regulation that came into force on October 1. Most of Russian gas delivered to Italy passes via Ukraine through the Trans Austria Gas Pipeline (TAG), to Tarvisio in northern Italy on the border with Austria.

(ANSA-AFP).