Bloomberg: Enel Sees North Africa as Key Natural Gas Supplier to Europe

 North African countries including Algeria and Libya can provide Europe with half the natural gas currently supplied by Russia, according to Enel SpA, Italy’s largest utility.

Algeria can ship 60 billion cubic meters (2.1 trillion cubic feet) of gas to Europe a year, while Libya and Egypt are able to provide 10 billion each, Marco Arcelli, the executive vice president of Enel’s upstream gas division, said in London. Russia supplied about 162 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe and Turkey last year, OAO Gazprom data show.

Enel signed contracts yesterday for two exploration blocks in Algeria on top of the Isarene and South East Illizi gas projects it’s already developing. Europe is seeking to reduce its dependence on Russian gas after the country’s conflicts with Ukraine cut transit to Europe in 2006 and 2009.

Enel wants to develop Algeria’s resources “to avoid any potential decrease in exports as there will be a significant increase in local demand,” Arcelli said in an interview. “What we are doing really is to make sure that they at least maintain their current production.” MORE