Italy scouts gas supplies from U.S., Africa and Azerbaijan after Qatar force majeure, minister says

ROME, March 6 (Reuters) - Italy is looking at alternative sources of natural gas, including U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline supplies from Africa and Azerbaijan, to make up for loss of deliveries from Qatar due to the conflict in the Middle East, Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin told a newspaper on Friday.

• QatarEnergy declared force majeure this week and informed Italian utility Edison EDNn.MI on Thursday that it would not be able to fulfil its contractual obligations concerning five liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo deliveries scheduled to arrive in early April.

• Rome is not alarmed about securing replacement volumes, since Qatar supplies only about 9% of Italy's annual gas consumption, Pichetto Fratin told Il Messaggero pointing to several options, such as U.S. LNG, "if it is available".

• Pipeline gas from Libya is another option, although "technical conditions must be created", he said.

• Additional flows could come from Mozambique or Algeria, and from Azerbaijan through the TAP pipeline, Pichetto Fratin added.