ALGIERS — Italian Prime Minister
Mario Draghi arrived in Algeria on Monday as Rome steps up efforts to reduce its
heavy reliance on Russian gas.
اضافة اعلان
Italy buys the vast majority of its gas from
overseas, with some 45 percent of imports coming from Russia.
But Rome is hoping its second-biggest supplier
Algeria can boost its sales in order to reduce that dependence after the war in
Ukraine sparked a push for sanctions against Moscow.
The Italian premier was invited by President
Abdelmadjid Tebboune to discuss “reinforcing relations of cooperation between
the two countries”, Tebboune’s office said, without giving more details.
Draghi said last week that Italy would “follow the
decisions of the EU” on new sanctions against Russia, including a possible gas
embargo.
Italian energy giant ENI’s chief executive Claudio
Descalzi visited Algeria in February with Italy’s foreign minister in a bid to
increase supplies from the North African country.
Algerian state hydrocarbons firm Sonatrach said at
the time it was ready to increase gas supplies to Europe, notably via the
Transmed pipeline linking Algeria to Italy.
Its CEO
Toufik Hakkar said Europe is the “natural market of
choice” for Algerian gas, which accounts for about 11 percent of Europe’s gas
imports.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
