Italy’s two-day state go to to Algiers resulted in power giants Eni and Sonatrach signing two agreements Monday that goal to cut back emissions and enhance the power interconnection community linking the 2 international locations.
The Italian delegation, together with Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, met with Algerian officers for a two-day state go to that started on Sunday.
To spice up hyperlinks between Italy and Algeria, Descalzi and Toufik Hakkar, Normal Supervisor at Sonatrach, a state-owned firm that is among the world’s main oil firms and Africa’s largest joint-stock firm, signed two agreements.
The primary settlement goals to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions in Algeria, with joint commitments to determine attainable actions and one of the best applied sciences to cut back CO2 emissions, notably in hydrocarbon manufacturing amenities.
The second focuses on enhancing the power interconnection community between the 2 to make sure a sustainable power transition. This consists of rising the transport of power to Italy and constructing a brand new gasoline pipeline that may even permit the transport of hydrogen. The 2 states additionally agreed to put a brand new undersea energy cable and improve manufacturing capability for liquefied gasoline.
Meloni’s want to remodel Italy right into a Mediterranean power hub is real looking however faces obstacles that have to be overcome, Descalzi mentioned on the sidelines of Meloni’s go to to the Mattei Backyard in Algiers.
“The hub is made to begin with of gasoline to be dropped at Italy and in two or two and a half years we can have the gasoline crucial for consumption. However power safety can be about infrastructure. We’ve got potential pipelines and regasifiers, however they’ll arrive”, Descalzi mentioned, as reported by Ansa.
Descalzi additionally underlined the structural limits of the south of Italy, the place there’s a ‘bottleneck’ that doesn’t permit the transport of greater than 126 million cubic metres of gasoline per day. “It’s a nice potential that isn’t being expressed”, he added.
Italy has a number of pipeline connections in Africa with Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, Angola, Congo, and Mozambique, but additionally with northern Europe and Azerbaijan, which at the moment brings round eight billion cubic metres by way of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), with provide anticipated to be expanded in a couple of years.
“From a possible perspective, already now we’ve got managed to recuperate nearly greater than 50% of Russian gasoline and above all by way of Africa”, confused Descalzi, who foresees Italy decreasing gasoline provides from Russia to zero from 2024, or 2025.
“It’s important to assume that solely two years in the past Algeria was giving Italy about 21 billion, now it has given 25, we’ll attain 28 billion subsequent yr after which in 24-25 we’ll exceed that once more. (Algeria) is mostly a strategic associate that’s serving to Italy so much”, he concluded.
(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)
