Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is looking to boost already strong energy ties with Algeria to wean Italy off Russian energy, the focus of her two-day visit to the North African country that begins on Sunday.
The Ukraine war, which upset global strategic and economic dynamics, gave a new and urgent dimension to relations between Algeria and Rome, which had long relied on Russian energy.
Other countries in the European Union also rushed to find alternative sources of Russian energy.
Italy and gas-rich Algeria now want to build on then-Prime Minister Mario Draghi's successful initiatives last year to boost Algeria's energy supplies to Italy. an Algerian diplomat said, “push beyond that."
“We want Italy to become a European hub for Algerian gas. A junction for other EU countries,” Algeria’s ambassador to Rome, Abdelkrim Touahria, said in an interview with Rome daily Il Messaggero, published on Saturday.
Algeria has replaced Russia as Italy's first energy supplier, sending natural gas via pipeline across the Mediterranean.
Eni said at the time that an initial deal struck by Draghi last year had added 9 billion cubic meters of gas by 2023-2024. Months later, in July, a $4 billion agreement was concluded between the companies Eni, the Italian energy company, Occidental, and Total.
Meloni is expected to meet Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune as well as the country's prime minister. Eni's CEO, Claudio Descalzi, will be among the members of the delegation.
“Today we are the leading energy partner of Italy,” Touahria said. “But we aim to push beyond that.”
Touahria, the Algerian ambassador, said the Italian company Eni and the Algerian oil company Sonatrach are jointly looking to the future with projects such as oil and gas exploration in sub-Saharan Africa.
Besides energy, a range of topics will also be discussed during Meloni's visit, from marine construction to automobiles and start-ups.
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