{"id":6064,"date":"2022-04-19T02:19:44","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T02:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euromenaenergy.com\/?p=6064"},"modified":"2022-04-19T02:19:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T02:19:44","slug":"draghi-is-betting-on-africa-for-italys-exit-from-russian-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/?p=6064","title":{"rendered":"Draghi is betting on Africa for Italy\u2019s exit from Russian gas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is chasing a raft of natural gas deals in Africa as he seeks to cut energy ties with Russia.
\nDraghi will travel to central and southern Africa this week in pursuit of further supplies after Italy struck agreements for Algerian and Egyptian gas.
\nHis tour may ruffle some feathers as European partners vie to displace Russian energy following Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.
\nPotential deals in the Republic of Congo and Angola could bring Italy an additional 5bn cubic metres and 1.5bn cubic metres a year, respectively, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
\nTogether with the extra volume it secured from Algeria, which would replace more than half the amount it gets from Russia as early as next year.
\nTalks are ongoing and details of any accords may change, the people said.
\nItaly currently gets about 40% of its gas from Russia, and Draghi \u2014 together with local energy giant Eni SpA \u2014 has sought alternative sources since President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine in February.
\nWith Eni already present in more than a dozen countries in Africa, the continent is an attractive option. Yet the former central banker\u2019s energy diplomacy is causing some anxiety among European Union allies.
\nThe Algeria deal stoked concerns in Spain that its own access to the country\u2019s gas could be affected, prompting talks between Rome and Madrid.
\nIt\u2019s also unclear how Italy\u2019s plans square with a push to centralize gas-purchase negotiations at the EU level.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s really important that the EU sticks together at the moment, that\u2019s essential,\u201d said Oliver Sartor, senior industry adviser at think tank Agora Energiewende. \u201cThere are some countries that are more exposed than others, so it\u2019s normal that they would look to protect themselves. But there\u2019s a higher priority here.\u201d
\nDraghi\u2019s discussions in Congo and Angola this week will focus \u2014 among other things \u2014 on boosting deliveries of liquefied natural gas, the people said.
\nThat trip could be followed by travel to Mozambique, though plans haven\u2019t yet been confirmed, they said.
\nGas discoveries off Mozambique have attracted international operators, including Eni, to its waters.
\nWhile work in the country is risky \u2014 with attacks by an insurgency group threatening onshore developments \u2014 Eni\u2019s Coral Sul offshore LNG plant is expected to start production in the second half of 2022.
\nThe company\u2019s deal with Algeria\u2019s Sonatrach Group, signed during Draghi\u2019s first official visit to Algiers, sees Italy buying an extra 9bn cubic metres of gas annually by 2023-2024.
\nOn Wednesday, the firm struck an agreement with Egypt to increase flows of LNG to Italy. It has also said it\u2019s ready to invest billions of euros across the Mediterranean Sea in Libya, where it has been present for decades.
\nDraghi isn\u2019t the only EU leader to court gas-rich countries in a bid to ease dependence on Moscow.
\nGermany, which relies on Russia for 40% of its gas imports, is creating its own LNG infrastructure.
\nOthers from France to Croatia plan to build or expand import terminals, while the US has also agreed to boost shipments to the bloc.
\n\u201cEveryone is moving very fast,\u201d said Simone Tagliapietra, a senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. \u201cIt makes sense for Draghi to act now, and he is doing it very well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is chasing a raft of natural gas deals in Africa as he seeks to cut energy ties with Russia. Draghi will travel to central and southern Africa…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[46,48,57,68,76,77,81,82,86,87,90,96,99,103,107,109,111,112,113,121,122,134,137,139,146,148,160,174,176,183,184,201,202,209,222,230,232,233,239,244,246,249,250,252,256,262,263,267,277,279,280,283,285,288],"class_list":["post-6064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lng","tag-aramco","tag-athens","tag-baroudi","tag-carbon","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-closure-of-nuclear-power-plants","tag-co2","tag-cyprus","tag-decarbonising","tag-democracy","tag-doha","tag-eastmed","tag-egypt","tag-embargo","tag-emissions","tag-energy","tag-energy-market","tag-energy-peace","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-fuels-russian-gas-oil-and-gas-natural-gas","tag-gas","tag-gazprom","tag-greece","tag-greenenergy","tag-international-maritime-disputes","tag-lebanon","tag-liquefied-natural-gas","tag-maritime-boundaries-east-mediterranean","tag-maritime-disputes","tag-offshore","tag-oil","tag-opec","tag-pollution","tag-poverty-alleviation","tag-putin","tag-qatar","tag-renewable-energy","tag-rosneft","tag-roudi","tag-russia","tag-russia-in-the-european-energy-sector","tag-russian-sanctions","tag-saudi","tag-solar","tag-solar-power","tag-straddling-hydrocarbons-reserves","tag-total","tag-trump","tag-turkey","tag-ukrain","tag-unclos","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}