The war between Israel and Gaza may have unexpected consequences. Large gas and oil exporters in the Middle East may reduce supplies as happened in 1973 with the Yom Kippur War. In the unjustified invasion of Ukraine, Russia closed supplies to Europe and now we depend on those from Algeria and, to a greater extent, on the natural gas tankers that the United States supplies to all of Europe, although Spain continues to buy gas on the free market. .
We must become independent, and in principle, we have five projects that must be developed. The first was Barnamar and was born at the initiative of the governments of France and Spain. It involved laying a gas pipeline from the port of Barcelona to the port of Marseille. France's extensive pipeline network would allow connections with Germany's network and also reach Austria's demand.
The other projects are later. There are four projects to produce a clean fuel that is not subject to possible embargoes. Norway has never stopped supplying Europe with gas and oil and recently the state-owned company Equinor partnered with Germany's RWE A.G. to produce green hydrogen, a clean fuel that locomotives and large trucks use in the Basque Country.
For now, in Catalonia it is produced by Naturgy and is exported from its facilities in the port of Barcelona. The Spanish government had also started negotiations with the shipping company Maersk to supply green hydrogen. Maersk proposed using it for its fleet of 700 cargo ships and that way it would have non-polluting and cheaper fuels. That would require building between 20 and 80 wind and photovoltaic parks, because green hydrogen is obtained from natural gas and an electrolysis process using renewable energy. The fourth is H2Med, a new project that will supply hydrogen to Germany, France, Spain and Portugal, and will be financed 50% with EU funds and it is unknown how the rest will be financed. Deadline: year 2030.
Finally, the port of Barcelona is in the process of having a flow of tourist cruises that are not polluting for the city and premiums can be established to promote that the ships that dock have combustion based on non-polluting flows.
To conclude, Middle East wars have always caused human calamities and far-reaching geopolitical changes. And among others, blockages of fuel supplies. Just in case, China has closed unusual gas and oil supply contracts with Russia. Chinese-financed pipelines and tankers exported from Vladivostok in the Pacific.
