Algeria, July 18 (BNA) With the fate of his government in limbo, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is visiting Algiers to finalize deals to boost Algerian gas supplies to Italy, while Europeans prepare for a possible cutoff of Russian gas.
Noting the importance of the visit, the Italian delegation includes the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Justice and the Ministers of Environmental Transformation. They will hold a day of talks, meet Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and sign joint agreements.
Algeria is set to replace Russia as Italy’s main gas supplier, after a major agreement was reached during Draghi’s trip to Algeria in April between Algerian energy giant Sonatrach and Italy’s Eni to increase gas exports. European Union countries scrambled to diversify their energy sources after the Russia-Ukrainian war, according to Reuters.
Monday’s trip comes at an uneasy time for Draghi, who has had to cut it short for a day due to political problems at home. The main partner in his pandemic government, the populist 5-Star Movement, boycotted last week’s vote of confidence in the Senate on a bill to reduce energy costs, threatening the survival of the 17-month-old government.
Political turmoil forced Draghi to reduce his visit to Algeria from two days to just one day.
Before the war, Russia supplied Italy with about 29 billion cubic meters of gas annually, compared to about 23 billion from Algeria. Algeria has already this year delivered 13.9 billion cubic meters to Italy via a trans-Mediterranean pipeline, 113% more than expected, according to Algerian energy giant Sonatrach. Algeria announced Friday an increase of 4 billion cubic meters in planned supplies for the coming months.
Italy relies in particular on natural gas to generate electricity, heat and cool homes and power its industry. Italy is also communicating with other energy producing countries to secure alternative sources, including Azerbaijan, Qatar, Congo, Angola and Mozambique.
HF