Di Maio as Musk: “I hate having to say it but we have to immediately increase oil and gas production”

«As Elon Musk said a few days ago», father of the electrification of mobility, «’I hate to say this but we have to increase oil and gas production immediately, extraordinary times require extraordinary measures’». This was stated by the Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, in his speech at the XIII joint Maeci-Bank of Italy Conference, dedicated to the energy transition.
Diversify supply routes
“The urgent need to ensure our energy security – underlined Di Maio – is an objective that requires us to accelerate the process of diversifying the supply routes to free ourselves as far as possible from the Russian market, from which we import 40% of the needs. Italian gas. I am thinking, for example, of the role played in this sense by the Tap pipeline since its entry into operation in November 2020 ». “The Government – explained the Foreign Minister – therefore immediately mobilized, with the Farnesina at the forefront, in this commitment: in recent weeks, in synergy with Eni and its CEO Claudio Descalzi, we went to Algeria , where I received from my interlocutors the maximum availability and readiness to increase the supply of natural gas to Italy and Europe, in Qatar where we discussed the supply of liquid natural gas of which Doha is our main supplier. We have just returned from Congo and Angola a few hours ago, where we have examined the prospects for enhanced energy cooperation with the respective authorities ”.
The Memorandum of Understanding with Algeria and Libya
Then Di Maio explained what the Italian government is doing in this direction. We are working on several fronts to counter the increases in energy prices. «At the same time – the minister pointed out – we are also working for a diversification of energy sources, we are negotiating a memorandum of understanding with Algeria and Libya on the development of renewable sources and with Tunisia on green hydrogen. At the multilateral level, we work closely with the countries of the European Union and the members of the International Energy Agency. In Europe, thanks to the continuous connection with the Minister of Ecological Transition Cingolani, it was possible to make progress towards the Italian positions on the solidarity mechanisms for natural gas, with hypotheses of collective purchases and common storage systems. We also accepted Ukraine’s request to link its electricity grid to the European one. The Extraordinary European Council of 10-11 March confirmed the extraordinary unity of the European Union. As the Prime Minister Mario Draghi also pointed out, European leaders have outlined a path to respond to the challenges on the raw materials markets posed by the Ukrainian crisis ”.