Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune have agreed to increase north African energy exports to its northern Latin neighbor. This will specifically involve Eni, an Italian multinational oil and gas company, and Algeria’s Sonatrach Petroleum Corporation.
The deal comes as sanctions and instability owing to the war in Ukraine are leading countries throughout Europe to pivot away from energy dependency on Russia. For its part, 40% of Italy’s total gas imports in 2021 came from Russia. It has recently been looking not only to north Africa, but also Angola, Azerbaijan, Congo, and Qatar to alleviate this dependence. But it is not only Italy that will diversify its energy supply, as it has also apparently committed to helping Algeria develop its renewables.
Securing north African gas is a natural move for southern European countries, one which Italy is particularly well placed to make, contrasting with Spain’s wanton alienation of Algeria through its recent acquiescing to Moroccan plans for the Western Sahara. Algeria, whose rivalry with Morocco is long-standing, has not shied away from suggesting that it may increase the price of gas for Spain.
Italy’s energy infrastructure is not only relevant to its domestic consumption, but to all of Europe, being a key potential entry-point for the EU to receive north African energy, including hydrogen. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has thereby triggered the construction of what may constitute a permanent replacement for previous energy supplies, partly shifting Europe’s center of gravity towards the south.
The impact on north Africa is also likely to be significant. The U.S. has strongly signaled that it favors a stronger, territorially irredentist Morocco. The latter’s claims on the Western Sahara would give it access to phosphates as well as increasing its maritime border to allow the harvesting of tellurium (opening the door for further conflict with Spain over the Canary Islands’ waters). However, this path is fraught, and Spain may well push back, at least if a future government includes VOX (which often refers to these issues in Parliament). U.S. and European interests may thus be set to clash.
