President: Algeria to ink $4bn deal to supply Italy with gas

Algerian President Abdulmadjid Tebboune announced yesterday that his country will sign a $4 billion agreement to supply Italy with large quantities of natural gas.

Tebboune and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who is on a working visit to Algeria, attended the signing ceremony of a number of important bilateral agreements in several sectors.

Draghi arrived in Algiers yesterday to finalise deals aimed at boosting Algerian gas supplies to Rome, while Europeans prepare for a possible cut off of Russian gas.

Speaking at the conclusion of the ceremony, Tebboune said that during his meeting with the Italian prime minister, he had addressed a number of issues of common concern in the Maghreb region, adding that the discussion was an opportunity to exchange views on many regional issues, “in the midst of the current situation and its repercussions on regional security and stability”.

“Tomorrow we will sign an important agreement with Occidental, Eni and TotalEnergies companies, worth $4 billion that will allow Italy to receive large quantities of natural gas,” he added.

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Last Friday, Algeria announced that it had decided to pump additional quantities of natural gas amounting to four billion cubic metres to Italy, starting this week, to reach six billion until the end of 2022.

In early June, the Algerian state-owned oil company Sonatrach announced the signing of a contract to pump additional quantities of natural gas to the Italian energy company Eni and other unnamed partners.

Algeria is linked to Europe through three pipelines that cross the Mediterranean, the first passes through Tunisia to the Italian island of Sicily, the second pipeline passes through Moroccan territories to Spain, and the third through Almeria in southern Spain.