Gas storage in Italy, the old depleted fields that now serve as a "deposit," reached 66 percent filling at the end of April, equivalent to 11 billion cubic meters of gas. It is a level higher than the average recorded in European Union countries, equal to 60%, and above all, the highest ever achieved in Italy. Similar storage levels have "never been recorded in our history, and filling them will be easier than in 2022," said Paolo Gallo, director of Italgas, one of Italy's largest gas management and distribution companies. The fact that Italy has significant gas reserves is encouraging. In fact, prior to the start of the winter season, all European countries were concerned about not having enough gas to face the winter and support the significant demand for energy caused by the economic recovery following the pandemic. The shortage of gas was caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Until the beginning of 2022, Russian fields supplied roughly 40% of Europe's gas supplies. Then, as the war began, the governments of the European Union attempted to replace as much of the gas imported from Russia as possible with that of other suppliers, in order to reduce energy dependence on a hostile and unreliable country. As a result, European countries, including Italy, have strengthened ties with economic partners such as Algeria and Norway, which already use pipelines to transport gas to Europe. Furthermore, much more LNG, or liquefied natural gas, has been purchased, which can be transported by ship and fed into the national grid after a regasification process. The majority of LNG was purchased from the United States.