Algeria, Italy pen $4 billion gas deal
Algiers, Jul 18 (EFE).- Algeria is poised to sign an agreement worth $4 billion to provide Italy with “very large quantities of natural gas”, the North African country’s president Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced on Monday.
The deal will be signed on Tuesday between US firm Occidental Petroleum, Italy’s Eni and France’s Total, Tebboune said at a joint press conference with Italy’s prime minister Mario Draghi in Algiers.
Rome has been keen to reduce its dependence on Russian energy amid the fallout triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Draghi, on an official visit to Algiers for the fourth Italo-Algerian intergovernmental summit, said the two countries enjoyed “a privileged partnership” in the energy sector.
In recent months, Algeria has become “the main supplier of gas to our country”, Draghi said.
The recent announcement of plans to pump a further 4 billion cubic meters of gas represents “an acceleration compared to what was foreseen” by the agreements and “anticipates even more substantial supplies in the coming years”, he added.
The Algerian Sonatrach announced Friday that it will increase its gas shipments to Italy from next week with an additional 4 billion cubic meters, in addition to the nearly 14 billion supplied so far this year. EFE
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