Algeria closes GME gas pipeline connecting Spain, Madrid worry
Half of the gas burned in Spanish power stations comes from Algerian fields.
REUTERS / Louafi Larbi
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
It is on October 31 that Algiers closes the GME gas pipeline which linked Algeria to the Iberian Peninsula, via Morocco.
A decision taken last August when Algiers broke off diplomatic relations with Rabat.
Spain, which depends for half on Algeria for its gas supply, fears possible shortages or even a rise in gas prices.
This week, however, Spain received assurances from Algiers that the supply will indeed be assured.
But in the context of an energetic global crisis, it remains to be seen whether prices will not soar again, as they did in early October.
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Will Spain be the collateral victim of the
tensions
between Algeria and Morocco?
To try to understand it, you have to take out the calculator.
Half of the gas burned in Spanish power stations comes from Algerian fields.
Half of this half used until Sunday the GME gas pipeline passing through Morocco but now closed.
The other half circulates via Gazmed, an underwater pipe crossing the Mediterranean.
Algiers has undertaken to honor its contracts with Spain and, to avoid any rupture, has undertaken work to inflate this second gas pipeline, and allow it to overcome the closure of the GME.
► See also:
When tensions between Algeria and Morocco weaken access to gas for Spain
Further price increases to come?
But Gazmed is not enough and Algeria offers to send LNG, liquefied gas, by boat from its four liquefaction sites.
On paper, Algerians are confident.
And if Sonatrach, the Algerian national company, swears to have sufficient capacity, we do not know however at this stage whether prices will move.
Those on long-term contracts are guaranteed and rather low, explains expert
Philippe Sebille Lopez
, but those on the spot market can be more expensive.
► To read also:
Algeria-Energy: Sonatrach reassures Spain and Italy, despite the crisis with Morocco
In addition, at the moment energy prices have climbed in Spain in the wake of world prices. Moreover, at the beginning of October, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez assured to have proposed to the European Commission to proceed to
“grouped purchases” of gas in
order to increase the negotiating power of the EU in the face of soaring
gas
prices. energy. “
If the pooled vaccine buying works, why don't we increase our bargaining power by making a pooled purchase and strategic gas reserve in Europe?
". in December, the Commission is due to present a package of legislative proposals concerning, in particular, gas. Not sure that the October outbreak will be the last for Spanish consumers.
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