French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Algeria’s aid to “to diversify” the supply of gas to Europe, increase exports to Italyand rejected the idea that France competes with the Italians.
“We are not in competition with Italy” for Algerian gas, Macron said in press releases on the second day of a state visit to Algeria, underlining the “low weight of gas in the energy mix””from France.
On the contrary, he said, “I thank Algeria” for having increased the volumes injected into the gas pipeline that supplies Italy.
“It’s good for Italy, it’s good for Europe and it improves Europe’s diversification“, previously too dependent on Russian gas, continued the French head of state.
Macron said France wanted, “in the long term, to consolidate the partnership between TotalEnergies and Sonatrach,” Algeria’s state-owned oil and gas company.
At an Algerian-Italian summit in mid-July, a major contract for “shared productionbetween the Italian giants Eni, the North American Occidental and the French Total, worth four billion dollars (approximately the same amount in euros, at the current exchange rate).
In addition, Algiers had announced a new increase until the end of the year in its shipments, through the Transmed gas pipeline, of gas to Italy, a country for which it became the first supplier ahead of Russia, after the invasion of Ukraine.
Algeria is Africa’s largest gas exporter, supplying around 11% of the gas consumed in Europe.
The French president, who arrived in Algeria on Thursday, also seeks in this visit to strengthen bilateral relationsmarked during the last year by continuous friction and disapproval of the colonial past.
The visit coincides with the 60th anniversary of Algerian independence.
In this regard, Emmanuel Macron told journalists that the search for “thetruth” and “recognition” it is more important than “repentance” on the questions of colonization and the Algerian war that affect relations between Paris and Algiers.
This is the second visit of the French president to the country and the first during the mandate of his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune -elected in December 2019-, who received him on Thursday upon his arrival at the airport and with whom he met immediately that day. , another meeting was planned for this day.
Source: Observadora
