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« Italy could start being independent of Russian gas within 18 months “, said Thursday the Minister of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani. To achieve this, the Italian government is counting on new supply contracts with certain African countries and the increase of regasification capacities in the country.
Italy is one of the biggest consumers of natural gas in Europe, the country imports almost all of its needs. Forty percent of its annual consumption, or about 29 billion cubic meters, comes from Russia, its main supplier.
To replace part of the Russian gas, the Italian government is turning to Algeria, its second historic supplier. An agreement was signed this month between Rome and Algiers to increase the capacity of the Transmed underwater gas pipeline which connects the two countries, up to an additional 9 billion m3 per year by 2023-2024. That would already solve a third of the problem.
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Another agreement was also recently concluded with Egypt to increase supplies of liquefied natural gas. Indeed, since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Italian government has embarked on a diplomatic offensive to conclude new supply contracts with African countries. Congo and Angola this week and Mozambique next month. Italy benefits from the good relations that its energy group Eni has built in these countries, present in Africa for 69 years.
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But going without Russian gas within 18 months seems a difficult goal to achieve according to some experts. The latter are rather counting on two to three years, because a good part of the gas purchased will be LNG, and it will be necessary to find LNG carriers to transport it. However, there is not enough gas available to meet global demand, all the major gas-consuming countries have the same expectation.
The same problem arises for finding the floating regasification units that Italy will need. The country plans to buy or rent them. For Italy, begins a race against time to ensure sufficient gas reserves for next winter.