The urgent gas pipeline requested by Sánchez would take more than three years to be operational

Spain would take more than three years to start sending gas to Europe through the

the project abandoned years ago by the Government and that the current energy crisis forces it to revive as an alternative to Russian gas.

After refusing to promote it three years ago, the government is now seeking urgent approval from Brussels to become an energy broker for African gas for France and the rest of its European partners.

The problem is that today the plan to develop this infrastructure is totally abandoned and its resurrection would imply long periods of time no matter how much the European Union was willing to speed it up, explain sources from the gas sector.

First of all, getting the project out of the drawer would require making adjustments to fit the current situation.

The first thing would be to review its cost, which was initially around

but would now be much higher due to the cost of materials and energy itself.

Secondly, environmental regulations in Spain have tightened in recent years, especially in Catalonia, where projects of the magnitude of the expansion

have come to be demolished due to their impact on the environment.

In the case of the Midcat, only its announcement at the time led to a strong response from ecological associations.

Once the project has been updated, it would be time to start processing it in

.

If the project were now classified as urgent by the European Commission, all the deadlines for obtaining the necessary financing to carry it out would be shortened, but in the gas sector they doubt that this process could be resolved in less than a year.

Finally, the third phase would include the actual construction of the infrastructure and the testing phase before the start of the operation at full capacity.

Here Spain has an advantage because the section to be built would be barely 100 kilometers, but in any case it would depend on the French will.

The works would last at least another two years.

"We would be talking about a minimum period of between three and four years, always in the best scenario," they explain in the sector.

These deadlines would lead to this gas pipeline not providing any relief in the face of the most urgent of the problems facing European countries at the moment: guaranteeing heating for their citizens for next winter.

However, infrastructure remains key to diversifying supply sources and achieving disconnection with Russia, which currently distributes

The current energy crisis has forced the Government to change its vision on gas, until a few months ago a fuel displaced to a secondary level within the ecological race promoted by Ribera.

Spain and the European Union have projected a medium-term horizon in which gas does not play a determining role in the energy market.

And in this context, the regulatory authorities of Spain and France then considered that building a new gas pipe did not make economic sense for their consumers.

"It would only make sense in a scenario with a tight market for liquefied natural gas," said the report from the independent consultant that evaluated the project.

This is the current scenario, in which the international price of gas has jumped from

in just one year.

While in Spain the Government continues to search for creative solutions to the energy crisis without revealing its cards, other countries such as

have entered the race for the search for alternative gas to Putin with which to reduce their enormous dependence on the Russian giant.

The new Foreign Minister

has given an order to accelerate the construction of two new regasification plants in the country with which to attract gas from Qatar or the US, while the Italian Prime Minister,

announced this week that he will buy two floating regasification plants.

This movement is accompanied by an approach to the Algerian government in the midst of the latter's diplomatic crisis with Spain due to Sánchez's change of position in the Sahara.

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