Spain and France announce new deal to build underwater gas pipeline

Spain and France have struck a brand new deal to construct an underwater gasoline pipeline from Barcelona to Marseille, cancelling a long-stalled pipeline venture that may have linked the nations via the Pyrenees.

The pipeline will enable Spain and Portugal, two main importers of liquefied pure gasoline (LNG), to carry their extra provides to France and different European nations.

LNG has grow to be the go-to commodity to switch the huge volumes of Russian gasoline that the Kremlin has reduce off since launching the invasion of Ukraine.

The European Union is making an attempt to safe as a lot LNG as commercially attainable as a way to make it via the winter with out main energy blackouts or gasoline rationing.

The deal was introduced on Thursday by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, French President Emmanuel Macron and Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, forward of an EU summit in Brussels, the place the power disaster would be the prime subject.

“This is superb information for Europe,” Sánchez informed reporters, earlier than heading into the assembly. “This solidarity is coherent with our inexperienced transition.”

“The target is to be higher linked to the remainder of the continent for Spain and Portugal,” Macron mentioned.

The deal signifies that the MidCat venture is formally deserted, the leaders confirmed.

The 226-kilometre-long pipeline was supposed to attach Spain’s gasoline community to France’s by crossing via the Pyrenees, from Hostalric, in Catalonia, to Barbaira, in Southern France.

MidCat had been stalled since 2019, when an impartial report forged doubt over the pipeline’s value and profitability. However the warfare in Ukraine and the next power disaster injected new momentum and fuelled calls from Madrid and Lisbon to finish the venture.

Macron, nonetheless, remained opposed, arguing the pipeline was too expensive, unaligned with the EU’s inexperienced ambitions and unable to move electrical energy.

The French chief additionally mentioned that two present pipelines that cross from Spain into France via the Basque Nation have been getting used solely at “50% to 60%” of their whole capability.

The German authorities of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which is looking for to switch Russian gasoline, additionally pushed for the pipeline’s completion. Thursday’s deal places an finish to the months-long tensions.

As a substitute of the underground MidCat, the nations will construct a brand-new underwater pipeline, dubbed BarMar, connecting Barcelona with Marseille.

The infrastructure may very well be operational by the top of the last decade, officers informed Euronews.

The pipeline will initially carry gasoline, a polluting fossil gasoline that contributes to local weather change, however might be steadily stuffed with inexperienced hydrogen and different “renewable gases,” though the business viability of those merchandise continues to be an open query.

On the identical time, Spain and Portugal commit to complete one other gasoline interconnection, named CelZa, between Celourico da Beira and Zamora.

Moreover, Spain and France will intention to finish a brand new electrical energy connection via the Bay of Biscay, whereas working to determine comparable initiatives.

Sánchez, Macron and Costa will meet once more on 9 December to find out the financing particulars of the BarMar venture. The Spanish authorities had beforehand steered that any new reference to France would require EU funds as a consequence of its cross-border dimension.