In February 2022, Russia waged an imperialistic war against Ukraine. The war has seen the commodities world going in shambles as global supply chains were disrupted. The war also saw brewing of soar relations between the West and Russia culminating in stiffer targeted sanctions on Russian economy.
This brought a new evolution in the geopolitics of energy. To move away from depending on Russian energy, Europe started turning to Africa for its natural gas imports and Italy has already registered a large footprint in substituting Russian gas dominance. Across the entire continent, natural gas reserves amount to a total of more than 800 trillion cubic feet, with BP predicting that the production of natural gas in the continent will expand by 80% by 2035, contributing to rising Gross Domestic Profit (GDP), the emergence of middle-class consumers and increased market value.
In early April, Algeria agreed to increase its gas supplies to Italy by 50% which translates to an increment of 9 to 10 billion cubic meters on an annual basis as early as the end of 2022. In 2021, Italy received around 21 billion cubic meters from Algeria. The export boost would probably see Algeria replace Russia as Italy’s largest gas supplier.
According to Statistical Review of World Energy, Italy is ranked twelfth gas consumer globally and requires 2,384,575 million cubic feet per annum while accounting for about 2.0% of the world's total consumption. Rome imports around 30 billion cubic metres of gas from Russia every year - some 40% of its total gas imports, thus, Angola, Algeria and Congo deal will bring Russian dominance to extinction.
The graph below shows Italy’s 2020 gross gas imports by country
The Department of Petroleum Resources report in 2021 placed Algeria as the second largest country with natural gas reserves in Africa and 11th in the world.
On the 22th of April, Italy signed another gas deal with Angola, which is Africa’s second largest oil producer in Africa and seventh in natural gas with the Italian prime minister revealing plans to add Congo Brazzaville to the list. The deals in Angola and Congo could bring Italy an additional 1.5 billion cubic meters and 5 billion cubic meters of gas per year respectively.
The graph below shows Top 10 Countries that produce the most natural gas (Billion Cubic Meters, 2020)
Source: World Population Review 2022
Meanwhile, the European Union is courting Nigeria to be its first African liquefied natural gas supplier, even as it tries to reduce its reliance on Russian gas. After the United States and Qatar, Russia was, in 2021, Europe’s third liquefied natural gas supplier.
Early April, The European Union started courting its first African liquefied natural gas supplier Nigeria. Nigeria and Algeria are the biggest African liquefied natural gas suppliers to the Old continent. The bloc is trying to strengthen its ties to Africa's top petroleum producer as Europe tries to wean itself off Russian resources.
Top 10 African countries with gas reserves in trillion cubic feet
Source: Department of Petroleum Resources 2021
Zimbabwe has also gas reserves in Muzarabani where the Australian company, Invictus Energy is carrying out explorations. The company is also exploring oil and gas in the Cabora Bassa Basin in Zimbabwe, one of the largest under-explored interior rift basins in Africa.
