What is MidCat?

Initially launched in 2003, the MidCat project (Midi-Catalonia) aimed to link the French and Spanish gas networks via a 190-kilometre pipeline running from Hostalric, north of Barcelona, ​​to Barbaira, east of Carcassonne, passing by the Pyrenees.

Its aim was to bring gas from Algeria to the rest of Europe and to put an end to the energy isolation of the Iberian Peninsula, which only two low-capacity gas pipelines connect to France and therefore to the rest of Europe. EU.

After several years of work, the project, renamed STEP (South Transit East Pyrenees), was finally abandoned in early 2019 after the unfavorable opinion of French and Spanish regulators.

In question: its environmental impact, denounced by ecologists, and its lack of economic interest.

A study commissioned by the European Commission had indeed concluded in 2018 that it could not be profitable.

Why restart it?

Since the war in Ukraine, the EU has undertaken to put an end to its dependence on Russian gas, which represents almost 40% of its consumption, which has revived the strategic interest of an interconnection between Spain and France.

Spain is indeed linked to Algeria by a 750 kilometer submarine gas pipeline, the Medgaz, as well as by a second pipeline, the GME – decommissioned in the fall by Algiers against the backdrop of the diplomatic crisis with the Morocco but which has not, however, been dismantled.

The country also has six terminals for regasifying liquefied natural gas (LNG), more than any other European country.

This network, to which is added a gas port in Portugal, could make the peninsula a gateway of choice for gas in the EU.

The MidCat is of "crucial" importance to "reduce our dependence on Russian fossil fuels" and "to put an end to the blackmail of the Kremlin", thus insisted on Friday in Barcelona the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

What barriers?

However, the implementation of the MidCat comes up against several obstacles, starting with its cost – estimated in 2018 at 440 million euros – and the duration of the work, estimated at three or four years.

"The MidCat cannot be approached as a short-term solution", recalled in mid-March the French ambassador to Spain, Jean-Michel Casa, in the Barcelona daily La Vanguardia.

Added to this problem is the lack of connections between France and Germany, the main country interested in gas that can come from Spain: without additional work, "there could be a bottleneck", insisted Mr. Casa.

The gas pipeline network in Europe Patricio ARANA AFP

An analysis shared by Thierry Bros, professor at Sciences Po Paris, who considers "easier to bring the gas directly by boat to Germany" than to "build a pipe between Spain and France".

"This of course involves building gas terminals in Germany", but their cost would be "not higher" than that of the Midcat, he told AFP.

What supports?

Despite the still lively debate on its usefulness, the MidCat enjoys significant support in Spain, where both Catalan regional authorities and central government are pushing for Brussels to declare the project "of community interest".

France has been more reserved so far.

But according to Madrid, this position is changing: there is a new "perception of risks and opportunities", thus assured Wednesday the Minister for Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera, for whom Paris "understood" that it was necessary "do" the MidCat.

The project could nevertheless stumble on its financing.

For Madrid, the cost must fall on Brussels and not on Spanish taxpayers, because this project would benefit the whole of the EU.

If it considers it "crucial", the Commission has not yet committed to funding it.

Everything will undoubtedly depend on the exact contours of the project: anxious to defend its viability, Madrid has pleaded in recent weeks for a gas pipeline compatible with the transport of green hydrogen.

A reorientation likely to convince Brussels, which wishes to finance renewable energies as a priority.

© 2022 AFP