Faced with European dependence on Russian gas, many voices are being raised to relaunch the Midi-Catalonia gas pipeline project, which would ensure the gas interconnection between Spain and France.
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The gas pipeline called MidCat was to link, via the Pyrenees, Hostalric north of Barcelona to Barbera, east of Carcassonne. Its aim was to transport gas from Algeria, a country which already supplies 11% of the gas consumed in Europe, to the north of the continent.
The project was abandoned in 2019. At the time, it was deemed too expensive: it was to cost half a billion euros, France believed that it did not really need it. Environmentalists on both sides of the border had strongly opposed it. But now, the war in Ukraine raises the question of Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. The debate on the gas pipeline is therefore revived.
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The construction of this missing link would make it possible to bring up liquefied natural gas (LNG) which arrives in Spain by ship from the United States, Nigeria or even Qatar via Spanish LNG ports. “The Iberian Peninsula is very well equipped with liquid gas discharge stations”, explains Joan Vila, industrial engineer. “There are eight ports in Spain, plus one in Portugal. There are therefore nine discharge ports in total. The gas pipeline is a way of making profitable investments that already exist.“
Spain’s liquid gas import capacity of 80 billion cubic meters per year. This is almost three times more than its consumption. But without a connection to France, it’s not much use.