Energy Europe is accelerating, driven by the need to end its over-reliance on Russia, highlighted by the conflict in Ukraine. The governments of Spain and Portugal also enthusiastically received the statements made by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday about the construction of a gas pipeline between the Iberian Peninsula and Central Europe.
This gas pipeline is “a priority” for Portugal, and the German Chancellor’s position on Thursday “increases the pressure on the European institutions” to move forward with this dossier, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa told the press.
“Portugal can play an important role” in helping to make Europe “energy self-sufficient” in relation to Russia, stressed Antonio Costa, whose country has a large deep sea port with a gas terminal.
The need for a European network
For her part, the Spanish Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, said in an interview with National Television (TVE) that Spain is ready to proceed very quickly with the construction of such a gas pipeline and pleaded for “greater involvement of the Community institutions” and “the governments of the Member States”.
On Thursday, Olaf Scholz assessed that Europe was “dramatically” lacking a connecting pipeline between the Iberian Peninsula and Central Europe via France, which would help “relieve and relax” the gas supply situation.
For her part, Teresa Ribera has indicated that in the short term, in “two months, three months”, Spain could “supply between 2 and 2.5% of the gas that can be consumed throughout the EU” by adding “an additional compressor”. the two small gas pipelines connecting Spain to France through the Basque Country (northwest of Spain), but, she added, “the most important condition is that France can transport this gas to the center of Europe”.
Lack of support from France
However, these would be small amounts that would not be enough to meet the needs of EU countries. The Spanish minister therefore again proposed the solution of a gas pipeline “through the Catalan Pyrenees”.
A gas pipeline project between Catalonia and south-eastern France called MidCat was launched in 2013 before being abandoned due to a lack of agreement on its funding and genuine French support.
According to the Portuguese Prime Minister, Paris rejected it because of its “environmental impact”. Teresa Ribera estimated that this project was abandoned because it was “not economical in a context where Russian gas was much cheaper than liquefied natural gas”.
According to her, Enagas, the owner and manager of the Spanish gas network, estimates the time required to operate such a gas pipeline on the Spanish side at “approximately eight to nine months”, but stressed that it “would be fundamental”. work with France”.
A source familiar with the matter told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the MidCat project “doesn’t exist anymore, that is to say it has been paralysed”. The project mentioned by Teresa Ribera “would be a different project”, especially because it would also “envisage the transport of hydrogen”, the same source added. Given the infrastructure already being built in Catalonia before MidCat’s abandonment, “that left about 100km” to reach the French border, this source said, confirming it would take “eight or nine months from the start of construction.”
Enagas has already indicated that it intends to invest 370 million euros in this project if the EU gives the go-ahead.