• Italy strikes an agreement with Algeria to obtain more gas and become independent from Russia.
• An additional 9 billion cubic metres of gas will arrive via the TransMed pipeline.
• This risks creating a new dependency on a country that has until now been aligned with Russia.

The Italian strategy for reducing its dependence on natural gas supplies from Russia runs through Algeria. On 11 April 2022, prime minister Mario Draghi, together with foreign minister Luigi Di Maio and energy transition minister Roberto Cingolani, flew to the capital Algiers to sign a bilateral agreement with the North African country.

Algeria will pump more gas towards Italy: the contract provides for an additional supply of 9 billion cubic metres of natural gas, on top of the 21 billion cubic metres imported in 2021 under previous agreements. In this way Algeria becomes Italy's main natural gas supplier: with 30 billion cubic metres of gas, the African country will overtake Russia's 29 billion, which in 2021 had made it Italy's principal supplier.

Where the pipeline carrying gas from Algeria to Italy runs

Like several European countries, Italy too – which imports 95 per cent of its gas needs from Russia – has sought a way to achieve energy independence following the invasion of Ukraine. The meeting between the Italian delegation and the president of the Algerian republic, Abdelmajid Tebboune, was also attended by Eni's chief executive officer, Claudio Descalzi, and by the president of Sonatrach, Toufik Hakkar, the Algerian state company.

The gas coming from Algeria will travel through the TransMed pipeline (also known as the "Enrico Mattei" pipeline, named after the former Eni president who initiated negotiations for Algerian gas in the 1950s), which starts in the Algerian desert, crosses Tunisia, the Mediterranean Sea and arrives at Mazara del Vallo, in Sicily, before running up through Italy as far as Minerbio, in the province of Bologna. Its capacity is 30 billion cubic metres of gas, precisely what Italy and Algeria have agreed upon.

The risk of creating a dependency on another unstable country

Algeria had already become Italy's leading gas supplier in the first months of 2022: in January, for example, Italy had consumed a total of 9.7 billion cubic metres of methane, of which only 1.7 billion cubic metres were imported from Russia, compared with 3 billion in 2021. In detail, in 2021 Italy consumed 76.1 billion cubic metres of gas, broken down as follows: 29.8 billion from Russia, 22.5 from Algeria, 7.2 from Azerbaijan, 6.8 from Qatar, 3.1 from Libya, 1.9 from Norway, 0.8 from the United States and 0.3 from the Netherlands.

In recent weeks, Mario Draghi had also spoken with Qatari emir Al Thani, with the aim of finding new exporting countries. After Algeria, the Italian delegation's mission will move on to Congo, Angola and Mozambique in search of more gas.

But it is certainly Algeria that will replace Russia, at least in part. However, betting heavily on gas means on the one hand further delaying the energy transition based on renewables, and on the other creating a new dependency: despite the cordial relations that have developed between the two countries, Algeria has always been aligned with Moscow, above all in military and intelligence terms. But above all, the country led by Tebboune was one of the 35 countries that abstained at the United Nations against Russia in connection with the conflict in Ukraine. From an ethical standpoint, we are back to square one.