Madrid In an attempt to become less dependent on Russian gas and oil supplies, Spain is coming into focus as part of the solution. The country is connected to the gas supplier Algeria via two pipelines and also has the largest capacity in Europe for regasifying liquid gas. During regasification, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) is converted into the gaseous state.
Six of the 24 plants that exist for this in Europe are in Spanish ports and account for a third of European capacities. The facilities are necessary in order to be able to use ship deliveries of liquid gas. Germany, which imports more gas from Russia via pipelines than any other EU country, does not have a single regasification terminal.
The comparison shows “potential for cooperation,” said Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) when he met Spanish Economics Minister Nadia Calviño in Madrid last week. “We talked about it very intensively.” Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) also discussed the topic with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during his inaugural visit to Madrid in mid-January.
What is missing, however, is a pipeline through which the gas can get from Spain to northern Europe. So far there are two smaller lines from the Basque Country and from Navarre to France with a combined capacity of seven billion cubic meters per year. For comparison: the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia alone has already transported 55 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia to Germany.
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But there is a project called Midcat that was set up years ago to increase Europe’s independence from Russian gas. This is a pipeline with a capacity of 7.5 billion cubic meters from Catalonia through the Pyrenees to France.
Germany, which imports more gas from Russia via pipelines than any other EU country, does not have a single regasification terminal. Spain has six terminals.
(Photo: dpa)
The first 80 kilometers on Spanish soil have already been built. But in 2019, Spanish and French regulators decided that the €3 billion cost would not be commensurate with the expected benefits. Midcat was therefore discontinued.
The Ukraine war radically changed this utility calculation. In the meantime, not only Scholz and Lindner have been antichambering in Madrid for the completion of Midcat. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also confirmed during her visit to the Spanish capital at the beginning of March that it was necessary to work on the connections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe.
EU backs construction of new pipeline to France
Both in Madrid and in Portugal, which is connected to Spain’s gas network, people are open to it. Prime Minister Sánchez sees the pipeline as an opportunity to make Spain the hub for Europe’s gas supply. The EU should pay for this.
Neither Berlin nor Brussels have any objections. The new pipeline should not only be able to transport gas, but also green hydrogen and thus provide long-term services. Sánchez also has ambitious goals for renewable energies: he wants to make Spain one of the largest producers of green hydrogen in Europe. A pipeline is just what he needs for that.
Spain’s Prime Minister Sánchez sees a gas pipeline as an opportunity to turn his country into a hub for Europe’s gas supplies. The EU should pay for this.
(Photo: imago images/Agencia EFE)
But as so often, the devil is in the details. Industry experts estimate that the construction of the pipeline will take three to five years. It does not offer a quick solution to the supply bottlenecks.
French remain reserved
In addition, the French have so far been less enthusiastic. “These are interesting connections, but also very expensive,” said the French ambassador to Spain, Jean-Michel Casa, in an interview with the newspaper “La Vanguardia”. “You also have to talk about this aspect.”
France has apparently always been skeptical about the project because it involves significant investments in the southern French gas network and environmental groups have already protested against the construction.
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If Spain were to help the rest of Europe, the pipeline’s originally planned capacity would have to be expanded, says Diego Rodríguez, an energy expert at Madrid’s Complutense University. “7.5 billion cubic meters doesn’t help much,” he says.
An expansion, however, would mean that a new project would have to be designed – which would not only take longer but also increase the cost of around three billion euros for the original plan.
In the long term, the pipeline is intended to transport green hydrogen
However, he sees the biggest problem in the planned transport of green hydrogen. “Nobody knows what such a hydrogen pipeline for long distances should look like, since it doesn’t exist anywhere yet,” says the energy expert.
The EU is just experimenting with so-called blending, in which a small percentage of hydrogen is added to the gas during transport. “The development of a pipeline that is also suitable for pure hydrogen will further delay the project,” said Rodríguez.
There are also currently problems with gas deliveries from Algeria to Spain. Spain received 37 percent and thus the largest part of gas imports via pipeline from the North African country last year. U.S. LNG shipments accounted for 14 percent, ranking second. Only nine percent came from Russia.
Political tensions are also hampering gas transport in Algeria
However, only one of the two gas pipelines between Algeria and Spain is currently in operation: Medgaz. It runs directly under the Mediterranean Sea to the Spanish port city of Almería. Its capacity was recently increased from eight to ten billion cubic meters of gas to compensate for the failure of the second pipeline: Maghreb-Europe gas (MEG). This line runs from Algeria through Morocco and the Straits of Gibraltar to Spain.
Algeria is at odds with Morocco over Western Sahara. So that Morocco no longer benefits from the transit fees for Algerian gas, Algiers closed the pipeline with a capacity of twelve billion cubic meters last autumn. Madrid has therefore even resorted to LNG supplies from Algeria to cover its own needs.
It also doesn’t help that Algiers is historically close to Moscow. However, the country is unlikely to close its eyes on a good deal with Europe: in addition to the lines to Spain, another one runs from Algeria to Italy.
Algerian conveyor systems are partly outdated
The Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez has already asked Algeria whether deliveries could be increased in the future. However, experts assume that this is not so easy. Many of the Algerian conveyor systems are outdated and would first have to be renewed. Attempts to extract gas from shale rock in Algeria via fracking were stopped again in 2015 and 2020 after violent protests from residents.
That leaves primarily LNG deliveries to Spain for onward transport to the north. They are not particularly environmentally friendly: 65 percent of the oil and gas produced in the USA comes from fracking – a production method with chemicals that heavily pollutes the environment. But Europe can’t be choosy in the current situation.
More: How EU countries want to reduce their dependence on gas from Russia