« Go back Italy will become a new energy hub for Europe
As of February 2022, almost half of the electricity in Italy was generated primarily from natural gas: about 38% of this was generated from Moscow gas.
However, Italy has managed since the early months of the conflict to diversify the source of energy supply flows, thanks to the presence on its territory of important gas import infrastructure.
In northern Italy we can find, in addition to Trans Austria Gas (TAG), Transitgas, infrastructure connecting with northern Europe, and the interconnection with Slovenia via Gorizia. In the center-north, on the other hand, three plants specializing in LNG (liquefied natural gas) regasification are located in Panigaglia, Porto Viro and Livorno. In the south we find three other pipelines-Transmed, Greenstream and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP)-that transport gas from Algeria, Libya and Azerbaijan, respectively.
The new sources of supply followed the signing of several trade agreements under the Draghi and Meloni governments with the southern shore of the Mediterranean - Algeria, Egypt, Israel - and more broadly to Africa and Asia - Angola, Congo, Qatar, Azerbaijan.
By the end of 2022, the level of Russian imports had already been drastically reduced: now gas arrives in Italy 34.3% from Algeria; 16% from Russia; 14.8% from Azerbaijan; 10.3% from Northern Europe; and 3.8% from Libya and 20.6% from LNG, mainly from Qatar, the United States, Nigeria, and Egypt.
Upon completion of the planned projects, Italy should be able to stop depending on Russian gas, presumably as early as winter 2024/2025. Italy could be an energy distribution center to Europe not only for gas but also for other resources such as hydrogen, ammonia, electricity and renewables.
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