Algerian gas deliveries to Spain will now be made exclusively via the Medgaz submarine pipeline, after Algiers’ decision to abandon the pipeline currently used and which passes through Morocco, ministers from the two ministers said on Wednesday (October 27th). country.
Since 1996, Algeria has been shipping around 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Spain and Portugal per year via the GME (Gaz Maghreb Europe), a gas pipeline crossing Morocco, but Algiers has decided not to renew this contract. , against the backdrop of a serious diplomatic crisis between the two Maghreb neighbors. Another pipeline, the Medgaz submarine gas pipeline, has also been carrying Algerian gas to Spain since 2011, but it is already operating at its maximum capacity of 8 billion cubic meters per year, or half of Algeria’s annual exports. to this country and Portugal.
The continuation of deliveries to Spain was at the center of discussions, Wednesday in Algiers, between the Spanish minister of ecological transition, Teresa Ribera, in charge of energy, and the Algerian minister of energy and mines, Mohamed. Arkab. Algeria is Spain’s leading supplier of natural gas.
Towards an extension of Medgaz’s capacity
“Algeria, through the company Sonatrach, will honor its commitments with Spain relating to the supply of natural gas and it is ready to discuss the conditions for additional gas deliveries”, said Arkab, quoted by the official APS agency. “The Spanish partners have been assured that Algeria will provide all the supplies planned. We are also committed to ensuring that all deliveries are made through the facilities located in Algeria, via the Medgaz gas pipeline and gas conversion complexes ”, specified the minister. Mr. Arkab mentioned an extension of Medgaz’s capacity and an increase in exports of liquefied natural gas by sea.
Mme Ribera, for her part, claimed, according to APS, to have been informed by her Algerian interlocutor of the “Measures taken to continue to ensure gas deliveries through Medgaz in the best possible way, according to a well-determined schedule”.
Traditionally difficult, relations between Algeria and Morocco have deteriorated in recent months mainly because of the Western Sahara issue. Rabat controls nearly 80% of this vast desert territory with its rich subsoil and bordering waters full of fish, while Algiers supports the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front. At the end of August, Algeria severed diplomatic relations with Morocco.
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