Italy, during this year, may refuse to purchase Russian gas and become a supplier of this fuel through new channels and double supplies from Azerbaijan, Adolfo Urso, Italian Minister for Business and Made in Italy, said in an interview with il Messaggero newspaper before visiting Baku, Report informs.
"During this year, we will get rid of gas supplies from Russia ... Starting next year, we will be able to supply gas to other countries ourselves and will soon turn into a gas hub in Europe, thanks to the doubling of the volume of supplies from Azerbaijan through the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline," he said.
Earlier, government representatives said that, considering savings in consumption and obtaining new energy resources, Italy expects to become completely independent of gas supplies from the Russian Federation in the second half of 2024.
According to Urso, last year, the share of gas from Russia in the Italian market already decreased to 16% from 40%.
"Two LNG regasification terminals in Piombino and Ravenna, which will be put into operation before the summer, will produce the same 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year that we imported from Russia last year," the minister explained.
Since the commissioning of TAP, more than 20 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas have been transported to three European countries.