Teresa Ribera, Minister for the Ecological Transition, confirmed this morning in statements to the RTVE channel 24 Horas that she has maintained contacts with the German Government to implement and expand the connection of the Spanish gas networks with European networks so that the gas from Algeria and the liquefied product from other destinations that is regasified in the Peninsula arrives in Germany through Spain.
In this sense, it has carried out several interventions, among which the connection to France through the Midcat gas pipeline stands out, which now reaches the Girona municipality of Hostalric. The minister has assured that with European help, the infrastructure could be operational within eight or nine months to the French border. Its full functioning will depend on France.
Ribera has indicated that Germany will join the project's technical table, which must cease to be a bilateral intervention between Spain and France to become a European project that guarantees supply to the entire EU. In principle, natural gas and in a scenario that was set from 2040, green hydrogen.
"Our intention is to contribute to resolving the energy emergency that northern Europe is suffering due to Putin's blackmail, using the capacity that Spain already has. One of the lessons of this crisis is that European energy policy has a long way to go" .
Ribera specified that this intervention will be carried out in three ways and will be executed as a matter of urgency. The first will take place in a period of just two or three months to be ready before winter and will consist of the installation of new compressors in the two gas pipelines that already reach France through the Basque Country and Navarra (Irún and Larrau) to expand its capacity.
Specifically, this intervention, which will require France to also expand its pumping capacity, will make it possible to increase the capacity of the flow of gas circulating from these gas pipelines from the current 5,000 million cubic meters to 8,000. Ribera specified that this amount would mean between 2% and 2.5% of the gas consumed in the European Union.
On the other hand, the minister pointed out that another objective of this emergency plan is to expand the logistics capacity of the regasification plants that exist on the Peninsula and their storage capacity thanks to the start-up of the plant that is being completed in Gijón and that must be operational in December.
The reactions to Ribera's announcement have not been long in coming. Pedro Rollán, regional deputy secretary of the PP, celebrated the revival of the Midcat project. "I think that during the mandate of Pedro Sánchez this absolutely necessary infrastructure had been left in the background and therefore it is welcome that it is carried out, since it will mark a before and after in the independence and autonomy of gas from of Russia," he said in statements to TVE.
From the Catalan employers Foment, its president, Josep Sánchez Llibre, has also welcomed the reactivation of this infrastructure. "We cannot miss this opportunity. These connections can be proposed and financed with European funds and must make Spain the great European 'hub' for gas interconnections between southern and northern Europe," he said in statements to Antena3.
The project, which in its day ran into the opposition of mayors and environmental groups, also needs the approval and processing of the Generalitat. From the outset, the Minister for Foreign Action, Victòria Alsina, welcomed the initiative. "We are the first to demand the relaunch of the Midcat," she said in statements collected by the ACN agency. Alsina has added that this project should be linked to the reactivation of the Mediterranean corridor.
