Page 4 - AfrOil Week 15 2022

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

Left to right: Italian PM Mario Draghi, Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, Sonatrach President Toufik Hakkar, Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune (Photo: Governo.it)
Italy’s campaigns

for North African gas

Officials in Rome, along with representatives of Eni, are stepping

up efforts to secure more natural gas from Libya, Algeria and Egypt

THE EU has declared its commitment to reduc- have made overtures to gas-producing states in
ing dependence on natural gas imports from North Africa.
WHAT: Russia in response to that country’s invasion of
After reports of negotia- Ukraine on February 24. Talks in Libya
tions with Libya’s NOC, Last month, officials in Brussels said the bloc As NewsBase noted in this space last week, these
Italy’s Eni has secured aimed to cut the total volume of Russian gas overtures show signs of paying off in Libya. The
an agreement with imports by two thirds by the end of this year and Italian major Eni expects to strike a deal with
Sonatrach on extra gas then bring it all the way down to zero by the end Libya’s National Oil Corp. (NOC) in the near
supplies. of the decade. future on boosting the volume of gas delivered
These are certainly ambitious goals, given via the underutilised Greenstream pipeline, and
WHY: that the EU bought about 155bn cubic metres of the two sides could sign an agreement very soon.
Italy is making a serious Russian gas in 2021. As such, the announcement It is worth noting, though, that the outlines
effort to find alternatives
to Russian gas. from Brussels has raised plenty of questions of this anticipated deal with NOC are still some-
about how exactly the bloc intended to go about what hazy. That is, Eni has not said exactly how
WHAT NEXT: making a shift of this magnitude. much gas it expects to receive from Libya and
Eni is also laying the The EU as a whole has yet to give a concrete on what date the gas might start arriving, and
foundation for expanding answer, but Italy, one of the bloc’s member NOC has not pledged to start sending specific
gas operations in Egypt. states, appears to be drawing up its own indi- amounts of gas to Italy by a set deadline.
vidual response. Some of the parameters of this However, Italy has been able to achieve
response have emerged over the last few weeks, greater levels of clarity in negotiations with
as Italian government officials and businessmen Algeria.

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 15 13•April•2022