Italy and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement on energy cooperation

Italy and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement to strengthen energy cooperation, in particular, regarding the possible supply of hydrogen produced by Saudi Arabia to Europe. This was stated by the Minister of Energy of Italy, Gilberto Picetto Fratin, Reuters reports UNN.

Details

The minister informed that the memorandum of understanding, which will be valid for five years, was signed by him and his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdul-Aziz bin Salman Al Saud during a meeting in Riyadh.

The agreement focuses on renewable energy, methane reduction, energy interconnections, renewable and low-emission hydrogen and ammonia, and carbon capture and storage systems.

The head of the Italian Ministry of Energy suggested that Italy could become an “entry point” to Europe for renewable hydrogen and ammonia produced in Saudi Arabia. According to him, it would be “a much closer, more competitive and strategic solution than other alternatives in the North Sea”.

We will remind

Last November, Riyadh abandoned an ambitious defense treaty with the US in exchange for normalizing relations with Israel. Instead, Saudi Arabia is pushing for a more modest military cooperation agreement.