The Diplomat
The Algerian government yesterday reaffirmed its commitment to Italy as a strategic partner for gas supplies and reiterated its criticism of Spain’s support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
Although without expressly citing Spain, the Algerian government’s special envoy for Western Sahara and the Maghreb countries, Amar Belani, accused Spain of “duplicity” and “selfish calculations” in an interview with the Algerian news portal TSA.
Italy has made a rapprochement with Algeria, following Spain’s U-turn on the Sahara, which led to the recall by Algiers of its ambassador to Madrid for consultations and a clear cooling of bilateral relations.
In his statements, reported by Europa Press, Belani affirms: “Italy is a friendly country that has always been present in the most difficult circumstances, and is above all a country with a constant attachment to principled positions on regional issues of common interest, contrary to what we have just experienced with other partners in the region, more experienced in duplicity and narrow, selfish calculations”.
Belani defends projects to “guarantee a gradual increase in the share of Algerian natural gas” in the Italian market “in the short, medium and long term”.
This progress depends on pending “technical discussions” to increase natural gas production from “joint projects in Algeria” and to “launch new joint initiatives in Algeria for research and production of gas from confirmed geological basins”.
On 11 April, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi visited Algiers where he signed an agreement for a nearly 50 percent increase in Algerian natural gas imports.
The export boost would make Algeria Italy’s largest supplier of natural gas to Italy, replacing Russia, by increasing its shipments by an additional 9-10 billion cubic metres per year by the end of 2022.
Italy received around 21 billion cubic metres of gas from Algeria in 2021, compared to around 29 billion cubic metres from Russia.
