Mohamed Arkab does not rest. The very powerful Algerian Minister of Energy, a sort of deus ex machina of real power in North Africa, has only one goal: to replace Russia as the privileged European interlocutor for gas supplies, but above all to become the protagonist of the new energy frontier of the tomorrow, hydrogen. The strategy of the future, however, according to the Algerian government, passes through Sardinia. Yesterday in Algiers, the signing of a new international agreement to restart the Galsi, the Algeria-Sardinia-Italy pipeline without wasting any more time. This time the agreement is signed by none other than the Germany of Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor in search of a Mediterranean way for the supply of gas.
Germany & Galsi
The agreement is a very heavy partnership with a short, medium and long-term goal. In practice, the plan aims to build the pipeline with Sardinia to allow new gas to arrive in Germany as well and, above all, in the future, green hydrogen, the one produced by solar energy in the Maghreb countries. The path mapped out by the Algiers technicians is as farsighted as it is elementary: they have gas, still in large quantities, and have unlimited solar energy. The theme can be summarized: combining the gas emergency of the coming years with a concrete and dynamic approach towards an energy future which for Algeria is called hydrogen. Translated, it means conceiving and building new primary distribution networks, practically methane pipelines, with third-generation technology, capable of transporting both methane and hydrogen, both belonging to the gas family, but with different characteristics.
The Algerian plan is taking on, day after day, the characteristics of a real Marshall plan for green hydrogen, the one produced by the sun and the wind, the only technology capable of putting into a system, giving it power and energy continuity, renewable energies. The Algerian match is a chessboard of alliances that is unfolding throughout Europe with a project that is as urgent as it is farsighted: to build the Galsi gas pipeline Algeria-Sardinia-Italy. Yesterday's German-Algerian agreement is the latest in chronological order. The first strategic step was signed on 11 October, again in Algiers on the occasion of the second energy business forum between Algeria and the European Union. With the Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines, Mohamed Arkab, was Europe's number one for Energy, European Commissioner Kadri Simson. The event was sealed by the presence of the Algerian Premier, Aymen Benabderrahmane. The cards on that occasion had been planned down to the smallest detail: Europe is asking for the ecological transition, Algeria is offering it a latest generation pipeline, the Galsi, to immediately transport gas and immediately afterwards green hydrogen. A few weeks pass and Arkab flies to Rome for the most important dialogue conference between Europe and the Mediterranean. It was December 1st when, before the Italian government and the top management of ENI, his reasoning became even more explicit: «The rapprochement and cooperation in this region (the Maghreb) must be inclusive and address all aspects starting from those related to energy and not just hydrocarbons". For the Minister who talks from Brussels to Berlin, the step from strategy to concrete implementation is short: «We have a very ambitious investment program in the hydrocarbon field estimated at over 40 billion dollars, allowing us to maintain a production level of 110 billion cubic meters per year of natural gas, of which more than 50% is destined for export».
