Algeria hints that it would give up the gas pipeline through Morocco

A gas pipeline (photo illustration).

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Two days after severing diplomatic relations with Morocco, Algeria announces that it could do without the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline, a vital gas infrastructure for the Moroccan economy.

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While the diplomatic staff are packing their bags, because it is today that the Moroccan embassy in

Algeria is

closing its doors, a new episode has exacerbated the tensions between the two neighbors of North Africa.

Algeria has announced that it could do without the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline.

This

extremely important

infrastructure 

for the Moroccan economy has

linked Algeria to Europe via Morocco since 1996. With a capacity of 13 billion m3, the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline first of all transports gas in order to supply Moroccan electricity production then delivers to Spain.

" 

I think that we are beyond bluffing, and that we are really in power games between Algeria and Morocco 

", analyzes the director of Géopolia, Philippe Sébille-Lopez, specialist in oil and gas issues .

"This is the whole point of the showdown between the two countries"

During a meeting with the Spanish Ambassador, the Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines, Mohamed Arkab, affirmed “ 

Algeria's total commitment to cover all of Spain's supplies in natural gas through the

Medgaz 

”which directly connects the two countries, according to a ministry statement reported by APS.

The contract between Algeria and Morocco expiring at the end of 2021, " 

in anticipation, the Algerians had decided to increase the capacities of the other gas pipeline which also goes to Spain, but directly from Algeria. across the Mediterranean,

 ”adds the specialist.

Closing the floodgates in Morocco would be a blow to the kingdom from Algeria.

“ 

The Algerians claim that they will be able to maintain the gas supply to Spain without going through Morocco from now on, and this is the whole point of the standoff between the two Algeria-Morocco countries.

So we are playing on very clearly strategic registers

 , ”concludes Philippe Sébille-Lopez.

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