MILAN, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Italy plans to double its national gas production to 6 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year from the current 3 bcm, its industry minister said, in a further effort to cut the country's dependence on Russian supplies.
"One of our goals is to develop a plan that will make us as quickly as possible less dependent and will then turn us into the energy hub of the Mediterranean", Industry Minister Adolfo Urso told Il Messaggero daily in an interview published on Thursday.
The government will also authorise new offshore drilling in the Adriatic sea, he said, echoing the words of Italy's new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who said this week that Rome "has a duty to fully exploit" its offshore gas reserves to diversify energy sources.
Urso said that Italy would rely on both existing and new gas pipelines for its "energy hub" ambitions, noting the latter included Italy's extension to the EastMed project, called Poseidon and owned by a joint venture between Greece's gas grid operator DEPA and energy group Edison (EDNn.MI).
The other new project would be a potential pipeline running between Spain and Italy through the Western Mediterranean sea in case France decided not to connect its grid to the Spanish one, the minister added.
Spain, Portugal and France said last week they plan to build a sea-based pipeline to carry hydrogen and gas between Barcelona and Marseille, substituting plans to extend the so-called MidCat pipeline across the Pyrenees that France opposed.
Reporting by Federico Maccioni, editing by Alvise Armellini and Keith Weir
SOURCE
