Algeria plans to increase the volume of gas it delivers to Italy, said Wednesday Toufik Hakkar, boss of Sonatrach, the Algerian national company in charge of hydrocarbons.
At present, Algerian gas supplies to its Italian partner correspond to 17.8 billion cubic meters. This North African country intends to increase them to 25.2 billion cubic meters by the end of 2022, according to Toufik Hakkar. In this case, this would be equivalent to a 17% increase in production on an annual basis.
The words of the CEO of Sonatrach come in a context where many observers have not hidden their skepticism about Algeria’s ability to honor such commitments, which seem to go beyond its operational limits.
By the way, various analysts have lifted the veil on the difficulties experienced by the Algerian government in globally satisfying the energy demands of European states, particularly under pressure because of the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the cutoff of Russian gas from which they depend. supplied before this conflict.
It should be noted that gas costs on the European continent skyrocketed after the final shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline from Russia. On the ICE stock exchange, prices for this energy source jumped 30%. They have risen to $2.855 per thousand cubic meters since trading began last Monday, down from just $2.213 at the close of trading the previous Friday.
It remains to be seen how Sonatrach will increase the production of gas in this short time to satisfy the demands of Italy, Spain and other European requesting countries and to remove the doubt on the questions and interrogations of the analysts.