Algeria to deliver 4 billion cubic meters of gas to Italy next week

Algerian state-owned natural gas company Sonatrach will deliver next week 4 billion cubic meters of gas to Italy’s ENI, Algerian press has reported.

So far this year Algeria has delivered 13.9 billion cubic meters to Italy, 113 percent more than the planned volume, the daily ‘Le Courier d’Algérie’ reports.

A further 6 billion cubic meters is also scheduled for delivery by the end of the year as a result of recent talks between the Algerian and Italian governments.

Next Monday the acting Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, will travel to Algeria to take part in the 4th Algeria-Italy Intergovernmental Summit scheduled for July 18-19.

ENI has reported that the supply coming from Gazprom, the Russian state gas company, is 11 million cubic meters below the average supply of the last few days, added to which is the technical closure of the Nord Stream I pipeline which carries Russian gas to Germany and from there to other Euro countries.

The war in Ukraine has thus turned Algeria into the axis of European energy policy and has also led to agreements with the French company Engie, which joins the supply through Spain, although Algiers has already expressed its intention to turn its strategy to the detriment of Spain, which Algeria reproaches for its change to support the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, since the Saharawi independence fighters are allies of Algiers.