The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, yesterday played down the importance of the contract recently signed by the Italian government for the supply of Algerian gas, because “it is not a novelty that Italy supplies itself with Algerian gas” and because “Algeria is a solid partner that scrupulously fulfills its contracts”. He also assured in Rome that Spain and Italy are studying “the possible complementarity” between the two countries to avoid dependence on Russian gas.
“It is not a novelty that Italy supplies itself with Algerian gas,” since Italy has its own “connection pipe, exactly like Spain,” Albares declared during the joint press conference with his Italian counterpart, Luigi Di Maio, days after Italy signed a contract with Algeria for the supply of an additional 9 billion cubic meters of gas. Algeria has been until now the main gas supplier to our country, but diplomatic relations between Algiers and Madrid have seriously deteriorated following the decision of Pedro Sanchez’s government to accept the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
According to Albares – who traveled to Italy yesterday on the occasion of the centenary of the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of contemporary art – during the bilateral meeting with Di Magio the two ministers addressed, “in all normality”, the agreement between Italy and Algeria to increase their gas purchases by 40% and thus reduce their dependence on Russia. “Obviously, there is nothing more natural at this time than for the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the Union to exchange impressions on the energy situation, Russian gas flows or the supply situation, and with my Italian colleague I do so in complete normality,” he explained.
Likewise, the Minister recalled – as he did last Monday in Madrid – that the gas business structure of Spain and Italy are different, because while in Italy the company which signs the contracts is the gas and hydrocarbons company ENI – 30% of which is controlled by the State – which “for many years has also been the operator of Algerian gas”, in Spain it is the companies which have had “private contracts for the purchase of Algerian gas for many years”.
In any case, he declared, “Algeria is a strategic partner of Spain, a solid partner in gas matters”, which is characterized by “scrupulous compliance with international contracts”, and the Government has “not the slightest doubt” that it will continue to do so with Spain despite the new agreement with Italy. “Spain aspires to have the best relationship with Algeria and that it is not incompatible to have a good relationship with Morocco with having an excellent relationship with Algeria”, warned Albares, who did not want to pronounce himself on the possibility that Algiers might revise upwards the contracts with Spanish companies in retaliation for the new policy towards Western Sahara because he does not like “political fiction” and does not want to “feed sterile polemics”.
On the other hand, he continued, the two ministers analyzed yesterday “the possible complementarity of Spain and Italy to make up for that dependence that Italy has on Russian gas”. “Spain has a very important regasification capacity on its coast, which can, at a given moment, help a very important partner like Italy to resolve a complicated situation,” he continued. “We have also talked about the need to complete energy connections in Europe, precisely to be able to help each other when one and the other needs it,” he added. “We have seen clearly that Europe cannot find itself in a situation of dependence like this anymore,” he added.
During their meeting, Albares and Di Magio also discussed the interest of some Italian companies in some explorations carried out off the coast of Morocco, in non-Spanish waters. In this respect, the minister assured that “the extractions are not closer to the Canary Islands than to Morocco” and even, “according to the international law of the sea, they would be on the Moroccan side”. He also said that one of the issues discussed during his recent visit to Rabat accompanying the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, was “the reactivation of the commission to delimit the waters between Morocco and Spain, which at the moment are not delimited”, although “I am not aware that there is a date on which this will take place”.
