The leaders of the leading oil and gas companies of Italy and Algeria during the visit of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will sign an agreement on new gas supplies, which will increase imports from the African country from 20 to 35 billion cubic meters per year, Report informs referring to Il Messaggero newspaper.
Given the rejection of Russian gas, which accounted for 40% of Italian imports, Italy, in particular, also intends to increase pumping through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) from Azerbaijan and counts on the stabilization of the situation in Libya, which is able to increase supplies from 2 to 9 billion cubic meters per year.
Production from new deposits off the coast of Egypt and supplies from Israel will also help increase reserves, the newspaper notes. In addition, Italy is considering increasing the number of liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing terminals off the coast: the planned three stations, the first of which will start operating in May, could be increased to seven.
Italy intends to bring gas imports to the level of 50-70 billion cubic meters per year by 2025, in order to thus take the role of an energy hub for continental Europe, according to the newspaper. In this regard, Il Messaggero’s source in the government noted that Germany is showing interest in supplies from Italy. Austria, Hungary and Poland may become other destinations.
After the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Italian government set the task of getting rid of dependence on natural gas imported from the Russian Federation as soon as possible. At the initiative of former Prime Minister Mario Draghi, concrete steps were taken - the introduction of new austerity measures, the conclusion of new agreements on the diversification of energy sources.