The chief executive of Italian energy company ENI says the country’s natural gas supplies are OK through Wednesday but if Russia’s Gazprom makes more cuts there could be problems.

Paolo Scaroni told Radio 24 Sunday night the company is preparing for "difficult moments" should the cold spell gripping Russia continue and Gazprom further reduce supplies to European customers. So far, Italy has made up for Gazprom’s recent reductions by stepping up imports from Algeria and from northern Europe.

Scaroni said it wasn’t clear what Gazprom would do, but that Italy’s industry ministry Monday will discuss contingency plans. He said the "worse hypothesis" would be temporary suspensions of supplies to companies whose contracts with ENI permit such interruptions. Italy has its own cold spell.