President Emmanuel Macron's slam of the Midcat gas pipeline between Spain and France is favoring the search for alternatives to connect the energy of the Iberian Peninsula with central and northern Europe. And, in Italy, more and more actors are showing interest in this alternative being a gas pipeline between Barcelona and the north of the country, surely in the city of Livorno.
Carlo Bonomi, the president of Confindustria, the Italian employers' association, today blessed the project resoundingly: "The gas pipeline must be done," he assured this Monday after an audience at the Vatican with Pope Francis.
“I am in favor because Spain has a liquefied natural gas regasification capacity that is higher than current requirements. It would be a hub for Europe. It is in France's interest not to do so because it has nuclear power plants and is an exporter of electrical energy”, she reasoned, responding to questions from this newspaper during a press conference.
The hypothesis of a gas interconnection between Spain and Italy has gained strength in recent weeks, and technical studies are already being carried out to find out its viability, commissioned by the management companies of the gas transport network in both countries, the Spanish Enagás and Italian Snam.
It would be a way for Italy to import liquefied natural gas more quickly, since at the moment it only has three regasification plants with a very limited capacity. Rome is in dire need of these infrastructures at a time when it is moving fast to solve its high energy dependency on Russian gas.
