From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   The Unexpected New Winners in the Global Energy War   
   By Matthew Dalton and Eric Sylvers, Sept. 19, 2023, WSJ   
   BIR REBAA, Algeria—Once-obscure corners of the energy world, from offshore   
   Congo to Azerbaijan, are booming as Europe finds new sources of natural gas to   
   replace the Russian supplies that once powered the continent. The shift is   
   redrawing the world’s    
   energy map at a rapid clip.   
      
   In Bir Rebaa, deep in the Sahara, the Italian energy company Eni and   
   Algeria’s state-owned energy company are drilling dozens of wells, producing   
   gas from previously untapped fields in a matter of months.   
      
   Three pipelines beneath the Mediterranean Sea connect Algeria’s vast gas   
   reserves to Europe. For much of the last decade, Russian gas giant Gazprom had   
   kept prices low, pushing suppliers like Algeria out of the European market.   
      
   Algeria has long had a strong alliance with Russia, buying large amounts of   
   weapons from Moscow. Europe’s sudden thirst for Algerian natural gas is   
   challenging that relationship.    
      
   “We have friendship and political ties, but business is business,” Mohamed   
   Arkab, Algeria’s energy minister, said in an interview.   
      
   Algerian officials are negotiating new gas deals with buyers in Germany, the   
   Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. Italy’s Eni is making major investments   
   in Algerian production. The Algerian government is in talks with U.S. giants   
   Chevron and Exxon    
   Mobil on deals that would enable the companies to produce gas in the country   
   for the first time.   
      
   A consortium led by London-based BP is boosting gas production in Azerbaijan,   
   located in the former Soviet republic in the Caucasus. A 2,100-mile string of   
   pipelines connects Azerbaijan to the heel of Italy. Azeri officials say they   
   are ahead of schedule    
   on a pledge to double gas deliveries to Europe by 2027.    
      
   Eni is close to producing liquefied natural gas from a facility floating off   
   the coast of Congo.   
      
   All the activity is redirecting the flow of natural gas around the world. Gas   
   once flowed primarily southwest from Russia toward the Mediterranean. Now   
   Europe is preparing to boost imports from Africa, with gas flowing up through   
   Italy to Austria and    
   other countries. Global exports of LNG surged to a record high, fueled by a   
   sharp increase in U.S. shipments to Europe.   
      
   Europe hopes that the new flows will provide an energy buffer over the next   
   three years, a period when officials and analysts worry the supply crunch will   
   be the most severe. The hope is that the new gas will bring down prices after   
   the Nord Stream    
   pipelines, the main conduit for Russian gas, were severed by sabotage in   
   September 2022. The new supplies also would replace some of the more expensive   
   fuel that Europe has relied on over the past year, including LNG from the U.S.   
   and Qatar.   
      
   Before it invaded Ukraine, Russia supplied 45% of the European Union’s gas   
   imports. Now it accounts for just 13%. Still, Moscow could stress Europe’s   
   energy supplies by cutting those shipments, as it did in the months before and   
   after its invasion in    
   February 2022.    
      
   The Russian invasion came at a precarious time for the energy industry. During   
   the Covid-19 pandemic, companies had slashed investment because of cratering   
   natural gas and oil prices. Producers were unprepared for a sharp rise in   
   demand when lockdowns    
   eased—or the market disruption sparked by the war.   
      
   Western officials and executives embarked on an intensive campaign of energy   
   diplomacy. Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her predecessor Mario   
   Draghi traveled to Algeria to line up new gas deals. German Chancellor Olaf   
   Scholz toured African    
   nations with significant energy reserves in the months after the war. Eni   
   Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi and Guido Brusco, who oversees the   
   company’s oil and gas production, crisscrossed the continent seeking new   
   sources of gas for Italy.    
      
   “We started immediately to connect with our neighbors, particularly the ones   
   with the quickest possibility to react, like Algeria,” Brusco said.   
      
   Luigi Di Maio, the populist politician who was Italy’s foreign minister when   
   the war started, visited Azerbaijan to secure commitments for new supplies.    
      
   Eni’s oil-and-gas facility in Bir Rebaa lies in the Sahara nearly 500 miles   
   southeast of the Algeria’s capital, Algiers. The government boosted security   
   at the facility after Islamist militants affiliated with al Qaeda attacked a   
   BP oil and gas plant    
   in southeastern Algeria a decade ago and took workers hostage, killing 38   
   people.    
      
   The Eni compound is guarded by armed Algerian soldiers and security personnel.   
   Workers stay on the grounds for multiweek shifts. A herd of cats fends off   
   scorpions from the desert.   
      
   Alessandro Tiani, Eni’s managing director in Algeria, arrived weeks after   
   the war began, with a mission to ensure that Italy—and by extension the   
   entire continent—would have enough gas to withstand a cutoff of Russian   
   supplies. “We pushed the    
   accelerator to the maximum,” he said.   
      
   Algerian officials say this year the country could export 100 billion cubic   
   meters of gas—equivalent to about 65% of the nearly 160 billion cubic meters   
   the EU imported from Russia in 2021, before the start of the war.     
      
   Years ago, before the advent of inexpensive Russian gas, Algeria was Italy’s   
   top supplier. Now, it once again holds the top spot, helping Italy almost   
   completely replace the gas it was getting from Russia, which in 2021 accounted   
   for 40% of its imports.   
      
   Italy wants to parlay that success into exporting some of its supplies across   
   its northern border to Austria, Germany and other nearby countries. The   
   government recently fast-tracked the building of a new pipeline to carry gas   
   north.   
      
   Snam, the company that controls Italy’s gas grid, manages the flows from a   
   nondescript building a few miles south of Milan. Inside, a wall of LED lights   
   shows gas flowing into and out of Italy and across the peninsula. Last year   
   was the first time    
   Italy sent large quantities of gas abroad—to Austria.   
      
      
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