Italy says it could reactivate coal-powered plants if Gulf crisis worsens

By Francesca Piscioneri

ROME, March 4 (Reuters) - Italy's energy minister said on Wednesday he could restart some coal-fired power stations if the conflict in the Middle East were to provoke an energy crisis, adding that the country was for the moment "quite safe".

Italy has "coal-powered stations that I wouldn't like to re-activate but they are there in reserve to safeguard our country," Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said in an interview with the TgCom24 broadcaster.

Israeli and U.S. forces struck targets across Iran on Tuesday, prompting Iranian strikes against energy infrastructure in other Gulf states considered U.S. allies, in a region that accounts for just under a third of global oil production.

Iran has also targeted tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas flows. Traffic remained effectively closed for a fourth day after Iran attacked five ships.

Italy has a diversified portfolio of gas suppliers, which include Norway, Algeria and Azerbaijan.

In addition, its gas storage system, managed by gas grid operator Snam SRG.MI, is currently 47% full, well above an average of almost 30% for the European Union, according to official data.

"On the (energy) security front, our country is ... quite safe quantitatively," Pichetto Fratin said.

"We have the highest storage levels in Europe, we have diversified sources, and therefore we can say there is not an extremely severe situation regarding the quantities of resources, and I am speaking mainly about gas," he added.