There is water in the gas between Algeria and Morocco.
As a result, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday "ordered" to seal the gas pipeline supplying Spain which passes through Morocco.
The reason ?
"The hostile practices of the [Moroccan] kingdom which undermine national unity," according to the presidential statement broadcast by public television.
"President Abdelamadjid Tebboune ordered the termination of commercial relations between Sonatrach and the Moroccan Office for Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) and the non-renewal of the agreement which expires at midnight Sunday", details the communicated.
Algeria supplies 97% of Morocco's gas needs
Algerian gas deliveries to Spain will now be made exclusively via the Medgaz submarine gas pipeline launched in 2011. Since 1996, Algeria, Spain's leading supplier of natural gas, has shipped to Spain and Portugal approximately 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year via Gaz Maghreb Europe.
In return for the transit of the gas pipeline, Rabat received annually nearly one billion m3 of natural gas, which represents 97% of its needs.
Half were rights of way paid in kind, the other half was cheaply purchased gas, according to industry experts.
At the end of August, Algeria cut off diplomatic relations with Morocco, citing “hostile actions” by the kingdom, a “completely unjustified” decision, according to Rabat.
The crisis erupted shortly after the normalization of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel, in exchange for the recognition by the United States of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Algiers, which supports the Saharawi separatists of the Polisario Front, regularly repeats its support for the Palestinian cause.
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