Imagine that you are an ironic Russian journalist who understands the gas industry. Retell in your own words the text located in square brackets, come up with an intriguing name for it, break it into parts with subheadings and quotes, at the end make a conclusion: - [Will Italy become a gas hub in the south of Europe, not Turkey?
Mallnow gas compressor station in Germany 
Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/picture alliance
There will be no more cooperation with Gazprom, the two largest European buyers of Russian gas in the past, Germany and Italy, have decided to continue to import energy carriers not from the east, from Russia, but from the south, from North Africa, and for this they will expand the transport infrastructure going through Austria and Switzerland, from which they will also benefit these alpine countries.
As a result, Italy will become an important transit country and a major gas hub not just in the south of Europe, but in the Mediterranean region as a whole, and will largely assume the role in which Ankara and especially Moscow would like to see Turkey, more precisely, its European part, where two strands of the Turkish Stream come from Russia.".
limitations of the Italian energy hub
However, the Italian hub will have a number of fundamental differences - and significant advantages from the point of view of the European Union. Firstly, this hub will be located on the territory of the EU. Secondly, the infrastructure being created will initially focus on the use of biomethane and hydrogen in the future, mainly "green" - and thereby on the accelerated development of renewable energy in the supplier countries in order to accelerate the reduction of consumption of fossil natural gas in the EU. Thirdly, Italy is considered both a supplier and a transit country of "green" electricity, so we are talking about the formation of not just a gas, but an energy hub on the Apennine Peninsula.        
Berlin, November 22, 2023. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz receives Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni in Berlin.Berlin, November 22, 2023. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz receives Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni in Berlin.
Berlin, November 22, 2023. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz receives Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni in Berlin.
All these conclusions follow from the "German-Italian Strategic Cooperation Plan at the bilateral level and within the EU". This 36-page document was approved by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni on November 22 in Berlin.
The German media covered in some detail the results of the talks between the two leaders, in parallel with which the German-Italian intergovernmental consultations were held for the 32nd time. But since the range of agreements turned out to be very wide, journalists paid less attention to the energy aspects than they deserve. Most of the reports focused on the fact that both sides agreed to build a pipeline through the Alps. However, this greatly downplays the true scope of the agreed strategic plan.   
The key role of the MENA region, especially North Africa
In fact, the plural is used in the text of the document: we are talking about "new pipelines for gas and hydrogen between Germany and Italy (via Austria and/or Switzerland)." And these energy carriers will come mainly from North Africa: this geographical region is the key to the agreements reached. Periodically, however, the document uses the acronym MENA (Middle East and North Africa), implying a much wider region of the Middle East and North Africa. Note that Turkey is not included in it.
So, the strategic goal of Germany and Italy is, according to the text of the document, "to jointly support the timely development of infrastructure/regional networks for energy trade between the MENA region and Europe, especially relying on existing infrastructure and/or agreements, while taking into account the potential role of Italy as an energy hub in the Mediterranean."  
Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboun and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi Rome, May 26, 2022. Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboun and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi 
Rome, May 26, 2022. Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboun and Italian Prime Minister Mario DragiFoto: Mauro Scrobogna/AP/picture alliance
If we translate this ponderous bureaucratic phrase into a normal language and explain exactly what is meant, then the following picture emerges. Italy traditionally has a highly developed gas transportation system, through which mainly Russian gas flowed into Ukraine before Russia's invasion, and now mainly Algerian gas is pumped, coming through a pipeline laid along the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea ("existing infrastructure"). After former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi visited Algeria twice in April and July 2022, and received its president in Rome in May, this country dramatically increased its supplies.
Algeria should be followed by Libya
In turn, during the visit of the current Italian Prime Minister Giorgi Meloni to Libya in January 2023, the Italian energy concern Eni and the Libyan state oil company NOC signed an agreement ("arrangements") on investments of 7.4 billion euros in the development of two gas fields in this North African country by 2026. Libya could supply Italy directly if the pipeline laid along the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea to Sicily, which has been inactive for more than a decade, is resumed.
Tripoli, January 28, 2023. Italy and Libya agree on large-scale cooperation in the gas sector.Tripoli, January 28, 2023. Italy and Libya agree on large-scale cooperation in the gas sector.
Tripoli, January 28, 2023. Italy and Libya agree on large-scale cooperation in the gas sector.
Add to this the Azerbaijani gas, which, having passed through Georgia and Turkey, and then through the TAP pipeline through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, enters the south of Italy from 2021, as well as liquefied gas, which is received by five existing Italian LNG terminals (their number is planned to increase), and it becomes clear: Italy, indeed, has the potential to become a gas hub. Unless, of course, we mean by a hub not a specific point where numerous pipelines converge and diverge, but a territory with a developed transport infrastructure, where a variety of incoming and outgoing flows are redistributed.
Actually, Italy in 2022, in the midst of the energy crisis caused by a sharp reduction in supplies from Russia to the EU, was able to become a gas exporter: she supplied it mainly to Austria. And now there is a strategic task in the medium term to turn Italy into a source of gas for Germany, especially for its industrially highly developed south (the federal states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg), while the north of Germany will continue to be provided with pipeline gas from Norway and liquefied gas through LNG terminals on the North and Baltic Seas.
Hydrogen corridor laid in the center of Europe
It is in order to solve this problem that new gas pipelines through the Alps are needed, it is for the same purpose that the Adriatic Line project is being implemented in Italy itself. Planned for 2027, the commissioning of this pipeline between the town of L'Aquila in the central part of the country and Bologna will significantly expand the possibilities for pumping African and Azerbaijani gas, and then hydrogen, from the south to the industrial north of Italy, and from there on through the Alps.
A poster at ThyssenKrupp's facility in Bochum reports that this steel mill is powered by hydrogen A poster at ThyssenKrupp's facility in Bochum reports that this steel mill is powered by hydrogen 
A poster at ThyssenKrupp's facility in Bochum informs that this steel mill is powered by hydrogen Photo: S. Ziese/blickwinkel/picture alliance
In the new German-Italian strategic plan, this is called the South-Central Corridor, which "will connect Southern Germany and Italy with North Africa." Reuters calls it the South-Center Hydrogen Corridor (South Central Hydrogen Corridor). Its goal, the document states, is to expand the existing gas transportation capacities, "to import 10 million tons of hydrogen by 2030." This will give impetus to the development of renewable energy in North Africa and "connect demand centers in Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which will contribute to the emergence of a larger European hydrogen network."
Thus, we are talking not only about replacing the dropped volumes of Russian natural gas with supplies from other sources, but also about the accelerated development of a fundamentally new hydrogen energy and, accordingly, the hydrogen economy. At the same time, the role of a key energy supplier is assigned to North Africa, and Italy will simultaneously assume three functions: a major consumer, a transshipment point and a transit country.].