The United States is ready to boost supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Italy, but it is still unclear at what price, Italy’s new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday.

Like its European peers, Italy is scrambling to diversify its energy supplies to cut dependence on Russia after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Rome has already struck several energy deals with African countries.

The U.S. “guarantee their readiness to increase gas supplies (to Italy), obviously the question of price remains open,” Meloni said at the G20 summit in Bali, where she had a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.

Meloni said she understood from the talks with Biden that his administration “is ready to discuss with the European Union ways to reduce (gas) prices,” knowing however that the suppliers of LNG are private companies.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Alvise Armellini; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)