Italy may declare a heightened “state of alert” on gas next week if Russia continues to curb its supplies, two government sources said on Friday after energy company Eni (ENI.MI) reported a shortfall inflows from Moscow for the third day in a row. The state of alert would trigger a series of measures aimed at reducing consumption, including rationing the gas to selected industrial users under existing contracts, ramping up the production at coal power plants and also asking for more gas imports from other suppliers under existing contracts. Italy’s existing gas emergency protocol envisages three stages going from a state of pre-alert, imposed at the end of February after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, before moving to one of alert […]