ANSA reported that Italian energy giant ENI will stop supplying fuel to the troubled ILVA steel plant in Taranto at the end of the year.

ENI said that having ILVA not concluded any commercial agreement with ENI, nor with any other gas supplier, ILVA entered a default supply regime on October 1st 2014.

That regime has a maximum duration of 90 days and, as such, will expire at the end of the year.

Mr Piero Gnudi outing special commissioner for ILVA said that it would be a catastrophe for the steel maker if ENI cut off supplies, stressing it had paid all its bills up to now.

He said that "Nobody ever bought an impounded company, and today 75% of ILVA is seized. Private companies interested in ILVA showed concern about its problems, including orders issued by European courts to deal with the environmental problems at ILVA. But all have said they could agree to maintain employment levels.”

Earlier this month, Premier Mr Matteo Renzi said that his government was considering whether to take over the plant, saying in media interviews that if it did, it would not be a long-term deal. Instead, if the government did take on ILVA, it would hold Europe's largest steel producer for only two or three years, defend employment, protect the environment and then relaunch it on the market.