Italy plans to double national gas production to 6 billion cubic meters a year from the current 3 billion cubic meters, Italian Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said, Reuters reported.

"One of our goals is to develop a plan that will make us as quickly as possible less dependent and will then turn us into the energy hub of the Mediterranean, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso told Il Messaggero daily in an interview published on Thursday.

The government will also allow new offshore drilling in the Adriatic Sea, he said, echoing Italy's new prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who said Rome should make full use of its offshore gas reserves to diversify energy sources.

Urso said Italy would rely on both existing and new gas pipelines to realize its ambitions of creating an energy hub, noting that the latter includes Italy's expansion of an EastMed project called Poseidon, owned by a joint venture between Greek gas grid operator DEPA and energy group Edison.

The minister added that another new project could be a pipeline running between Spain and Italy across the western Mediterranean Sea in case France decides not to connect its network to the Spanish one.

Spain, Portugal and France announced last week that they plan to build an offshore pipeline to transport hydrogen and gas between Barcelona and Marseille, replacing plans to extend the so-called MidCat pipeline across the Pyrenees, which France opposed.