Energy, what will Italy buy from Azerbaijan
Draghi discussed with the president of Azerbaijan the "strengthening of bilateral cooperation" on energy, given the need for a detachment from Russia. Azerbaijan is already the top supplier of oil to Italy, and can become more relevant for gas purchases thanks to the TAP. All the numbers
Prime Minister Mario Draghi had a telephone conversation with the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev this morning. They discussed not only the situation in Ukraine but also the "strengthening of bilateral cooperation, particularly in the energy sector".
THE WORDS OF DRAGONS
Azerbaijan is already an important Italian partner on energy. To the point that Draghi, in his recent speech in the Chamber on the war between Russia and Ukraine, had mentioned Azerbaijan in the list of privileged suppliers to replace Russian gas supplies.
THE DEPENDENCE OF MOSCOW ON GAS
Italy is currently very dependent on Russian gas, which is worth over 40 per cent of the total imported. The second supplier is Algeria, with around 23 per cent (2020 data). This state of dependence on Moscow makes our country vulnerable to a disruption of fuel flows, which the Kremlin could order in response to harsh sanctions imposed by Europe, the United States and allies.
Italy will be able, in the short term, to survive without Russian gas, but its complete replacement in the medium term would prove extremely difficult .
THE INSURANCES OF CINGOLANI AND DI MAIO
However, reassurances have come from the government. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said that "work is being done […] to eliminate any blackmail from Russian gas". On TG1 the Minister of Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, declared that "for half the year, about half of the gas imported from Russia will be replaced by other sources".
Last week Di Maio visited Algeria to obtain additional supplies of natural gas, which arrives in Italy through the TransMed pipeline. Algiers could indeed play an energy role of greater importance for Rome, but in perspective there are two problems : one is internal political instability, which could paralyze supplies (as is already the case in Libya, by the way); the other is the growing national demand for gas, which reduces the quantities that can be exported.
GAS FROM THE AZERBAIJAN IN 2021
Azerbaijan's contribution to Italian gas imports is still limited: the reference infrastructure (the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline, or TAP) actually came into operation at the end of 2020. The QualEnergia portal writes that last year the Italy purchased 7.2 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani fuel, almost 10 percent of the total imported. National gas consumption was 76.1 billion cubic meters.
THE FUTURE OF TAP
The capacity of TAP is 10 billion cubic meters per year, possibly expandable up to 20 billion.
At present, therefore, TAP can guarantee Italy 8 billion cubic meters of gas, because the pipeline also supplies Bulgaria and Greece for small quantities: 1 billion cubic meters each. The pipeline starts from Greece, crosses Albania and flows into Puglia; it is connected to the network that connects the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field with Turkey.
THE AZERBAIJAN OIL
Azerbaijan is already an important oil supplier for Italy. The most important, given that in 2021 ( unem data ) it was worth 22.3 per cent of total imports. Russia's share is 10 percent.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/italia-azerbaigian-petrolio-gas/ on Tue, 08 Mar 2022 12:03:40 +0000.