Spain and Portugal on Friday subsidized Germany’s application for a pipeline connecting the Iberian Peninsula to Central Europe, and Madrid said its share of the allocation could be operational within a few months.
The proposal came as Europe struggles to find tactics to reduce its energy dependence on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, which disrupted the electric power market and sent prices soaring and countries rushed to increase their stocks.
On Thursday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said a pipeline through Portugal, Spain and France into Central Europe was “visibly absent. “
If it existed, it could make “a great contribution” to mitigating the source crisis, he argued.
Spain recently has six liquefied herbal fuel (LNG) terminals to process fuel arriving by sea, which may encourage imports from the EU.
But it has two low-capacity links to the French fuel network, which has connections to the rest of Europe.
Madrid is pushing to revive the pipeline allocation linking the Catalan Pyrenees with France, which could especially increase its supply capacity.
Speaking on Spanish public television, Ecology Minister Teresa Ribera welcomed Scholz’s remarks and expressed Madrid’s “willingness to make a contribution to the energy crisis. . . using the Spanish regasification infrastructure”.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa also said such a link with Central Europe is “a priority” and said Germany’s position would generate “pressure on European institutions” to move forward on the issue.
Ribera said that if there is a smart fuel network in the Iberian Peninsula, the challenge is to send it through the Pyrenees.
Spain and its fuel network operator Enafuel were working with the French government to expand “an interconnection,” he said.
“This pipeline to the Catalan Pyrenees would require an investment,” the Spanish minister continued.
“Enagás estimates that the pipeline may be operational only within 8 or nine months on the south side of the border. “
The pipeline would be similar to MidCat’s defunct allocation that aimed to link Portugal, Spain to France, but which drew opposition from environmental teams and was halted in 2019 when the investment failed.
A spokeswoman for Enagás said that from its 2022-2030 strategic plan, the company intends to spend about 370 million euros ($380 million) on the pipeline project.
“MidCat was thought of as herbal fuel in a north-south flow, but it’s different. In the initial phase, it will be able to send fuel, but in the long run it will send hydrogen,” said an informed source. the gas pipeline project.
Before being abandoned, the MidCat pipeline was built all the way to Hostalric, a town near Girona, meaning “there are about a hundred kilometers [60 miles] left to build,” the source said.
Given their importance to the entire EU, those pipelines will be financed centrally, Ribera said.
“This interconnection, which improves the safety of the fuel source with the rest of Europe, will have to be financed as a European task in which we will have to negotiate with the French government,” he said.