ROME: Italy and Qatar are working to further deepening the bilateral economic ties. Both the countries are planning to build their second LNG receiving terminal in Italy to enhance capacity, in addition to discussions on many other investment proposals in the pipeline, said Guido De Sanctis, Italian Ambassador to Qatar.
Italy is one of the largest trading partners of Qatar in Europe. Our exports to Qatar for the first 10 months of 2014 stood at ¤900m (about QR3.7bn) while Qatar’s exports to Italy was about ¤1.4bn (QR5.75bn). The trade balance was in favour of Qatar essentially due to exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG),” said De Sanctis.
De Sanctis said: “We have been trying to diversify our sources of energy since the 1950s. This is why in 2010 we started importing LNG from Qatar. The existing terminal in Italy, which has been built with financial support from Qatar, is almost running at full capacity. So we are looking forward to build another terminal to receive more LNG from Qatar.”
He added: “We also need to keep in mind that a new LNG terminal will not only be useful for Italy but will also help Qatar in catering to the whole of Europe.”
