Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi visited Algeria on Monday to sign several agreements, including an energy deal to boost gas supplies and reduce his country's reliance on Russian gas. Italy buys the majority of its natural gas from abroad, with some 45 percent of its imports historically coming from Russia. Algeria has therefore supplanted Russia to "become in recent months the biggest supplier of gas" to Italy, Draghi told reporters on Monday. The MoU "will allow Sonatrach and Eni to evaluate the gas potential and opportunities for accelerated development at specific fields already discovered by Sonatrach in Algeria", Eni said at the time. Algeria is Africa's biggest gas exporter and supplies around 11 percent of the natural gas consumed in Europe.

Source: The North Africa Journal July 18, 2022 19:52 UTC