BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 24. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi spoke about the importance of Azerbaijan in providing his country with natural gas, TurkicWorld reports.

"We have signed new agreements to increase gas supplies from various countries, including Algeria and Azerbaijan. Last year, 40 percent of our imports were Russian natural gas. This year, this figure has been halved. We are accelerating the development of renewable energy sources. Demand for renewable energy for 8 months of this year is almost 4 times higher than the sum of the indicators of 2020 and 2021," he said.

Italian PM has said his country will completely eliminate dependence on Russian natural gas by autumn 2024, stressing that this is a major national security goal. He noted that for this it is important to complete new Italian gas supply projects on time.

Draghi said Italy's natural gas storage capacity is currently at 80 percent and the goal is to increase that to 90 percent in October. The Prime Minister also said that protecting the volume of gas supplies cannot prevent the increase in costs, which have reached unsustainable levels.