Slovenia has secured natural gas from Algeria that will cover a third of the country's needs in the next three years under an agreement signed by Geoplin, Slovenia's largest energy trader, and Algerian state-owned energy firm Sonatrach.

The agreement covers the purchase of around 300 million cubic metres of natural gas a year starting on 1 January 2023 that will be shipped via pipelines in Tunisia and Italy. It was signed during a visit to Algiers on 15 November by Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon and Infrastructure Minister Bojan Kumer.

The contractual price has not been disclosed but Minister Kumer said it was "competitive" and partly linked to the price of gas on European exchanges and the price of oil.

"The key thing is that the price will be competitive, which is good news for the Slovenian economy and Slovenian consumers," he stressed.

The agreement is merely the first step and talks are already under way on a longer-term agreement and higher quantities, the equivalent of half the country's needs. Kumer discussed this with the Algerian Minister of Energy and Mining Mohamed Arkab.

The officials agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding soon. In addition to increasing the volumes and extending the duration of the agreement, the memorandum would also define strategic cooperation in renewable energy and the exchange of digital competences.

Geoplin said that the agreement was an important step in the continuing diversification of the natural gas supply sources for the company.

Slovenia used to import significant quantities of Algerian gas from the early 1990s through 2012 before switching, like most of Europe, to Russian gas. Geoplin currently gets the bulk of gas supplies from Russia.