Thursday 24 January 2013

Algerian crisis could cost Italy €1bn for energy

Algerian crisis could cost Italy €1bn for energy

Italy could face an additional cost of nearly €1 billion (£839m) per year for energy due to interruption of Algerian gas supplies.

According to energy consultancy firm Althesys, the Algerian crisis disrupted supply of energy into Italy, which could result to increased costs of around €989 million (£830.7m) a year, although it didn’t mention for how long.

Algeria is believed to have been Italy’s biggest gas supplier in 2011, with 32.6% of total imports and volumes of nearly 23 billion cubic metres. That is worth around €8 billion (£6.7bn) on average prices of gas in the open market, Althesys said.

Alessandro Marangoni, Althesys CEO and head of the research team said: “The instability in Algeria brings in the foreground the brittleness of our country in the provisioning of gas and returns the spectrum of crisis between Russia and Ukraine in 2009. Despite that being more than four years ago and the consumption of methane have significantly fallen, the Italian strategy for the supply of gas has not improved much.”

The incident in the In Amenas gas field in Algeria cost the lives of at least 37 foreigners, according to reports.

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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