Algeria announces a second gas pipeline with Italy while keeping the main one that connects it to Spain closed

Algeria and Italy strengthen their energy cooperation and compete with Spain for the position of hydrogen and gas platform in southern Europe.

The Algerian president,

, has announced on Monday the construction of a new gas pipeline that will link Algeria with Italy, while keeping the main one with Spain through Morocco closed.

Tebboune has received the Italian Prime Minister,

, and has announced various energy agreements, including a new gas pipeline through Sardinia that will also pass hydrogen in the future.

The announcement comes after the French and Spanish project formalized by

to connect Barcelona and Marseille with a new corridor to export hydrogen.

As Tebboune declared at a joint press conference with Meloni, released by the Italian government, the project will guarantee Italy to be the great

of southern Europe.

"We have signed the agreement today with the intention of beginning the study and later the construction of a private gas pipeline, not like the one that currently exists, since it will include gas, hydrogen, ammonia and electricity," said the Algerian.

Meloni, who has seen how the Barcelona-Livorno project that he had in his electoral program has been undone, has highlighted the importance of the new agreements with the North African country: "Faced with the great energy crisis that Europe is going through, Algeria could become the leader of production, certainly in Africa, but probably throughout the world.

Tebboune thus continues with Meloni the agreements reached last year with Mario Draghi, who took advantage of the latter's clash with the Spanish Government over the turn with Morocco.

Draghi was also under pressure to reduce Italy's dependence on Russian gas as soon as possible, much higher than that of Spain.

"Algeria is already our first gas supplier", Meloni has indicated.

The announcement means relaunching an old project called GALSI (Gas Pipeline Algeria, Sardinia Italy in Spanish) with the novelty that it will not only pass gas in a first phase, but also hydrogen. Tebboune has also presided over the signing of new agreements between his state company Sonatrach and the Italian ENI and has ensured that commercial exchanges between Algeria and Italy doubled in 2022.

Algeria keeps one of its gas pipelines with Spain open, the so-called Medgaz that directly links its country with the Spanish coast, but which is smaller than the one closed through Morocco.

It also has the one that connects Algeria with Italy through Sicily, which triples the capacity of the Medgaz.

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• Italy

• Algeria

• Europe

• Barcelona

• Morocco

• Mario Draghi

• Africa

• Emmanuel Macron

• France