The Spanish Government assured yesterday that the gas pipeline project between Barcelona and Marseille could come into operation “in four or five years”. “There have been some early sketches that Enagás was working on. (…) We had started working on this hypothesis (that of a pipeline connecting Barcelona with Liorna) and the connection with Marseille is shortened. Our calculation is that it would take between four and five years”, explained Teresa Ribera, third vice-president and Minister of Ecological Transition, in statements to Spanish media at the Embassy in Paris.
The Spanish minister met yesterday in Paris with the French Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, and the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. This meeting took place after the agreement established on Thursday between Paris, Madrid and Lisbon to promote an underwater pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille, which transports gas and green hydrogen. An announcement that put an end to the pulse of the last few months to develop the MidCat gas pipeline project, finally replaced by the so-called BarMar.
an approximate date
This infrastructure is currently an incipient project. Ribera acknowledged that the term “of four or five years” is approximate. It will also depend on the work of companies in Portugal and France, which points rather to 2030 as a possible date of entry into operation. “We know what Enagás’ capacity is. But we also need the collaboration of French and Portuguese actors”, he indicated.
The minister explained that they do not know the cost of the new infrastructure, although she implied that it will be higher for the Spanish coffers than the 400 million for the MidCat works in the Iberian territory. He pointed out, however, that with the other countries involved, they proposed to present at the beginning of December a preliminary project with more details. “It will be a sketch that will allow us to answer the question of what is the estimate of the cost and the date of entry into operation”, declared Ribera, who insisted that it is a pipeline “to transport green hydrogen , although it will also be able to transport gas”.
In addition, he explained that it was Spain that proposed Marseille as a destination to France. A possibility that was worked on when studying a possible gas pipeline (or hydro pipeline) with Liorna, an option raised in August as an alternative to the MidCat. And he detailed that the BarMar will have three stages: “the underwater part that goes from Barcelona to Marseille, the part that will connect Marseille with the future network of hydroducts and a possible third that would connect it with Germany, although this it still has to be seen.”
A pipeline of 360 kilometers
After the last meeting of Presidents Pedro Sánchez, Emmanuel Macron and António Costa, the MidCat has become history.
The connection. One of the main changes is that the connection, instead of being made through the Pyrenees, an idea rejected by the French president for considering it expensive and for understanding that it would start in a few years, will be underwater. This 360 kilometer corridor will connect the port of Barcelona, where there is the largest of the six regasifiers in the Iberian Peninsula (they transform the liquid gas transported in ships), with that of Marseille. This will allow gas from Algeria to be transported through Spain, to France and the rest of Europe. For this reason, Germany, which has pressed for some type of interconnection to be agreed to reduce its high dependence on Russian gas, applauds the initiative. The agreement includes the commitment to conclude the project connecting Celourico da Beira, in Portugal, and Zamora.
The raw material. Another of the changes regarding the MidCat, designed for the transport of gas and to modify it in the future so that hydrogen could circulate in it, is that it is thought the other way around. In other words, it will be designed to carry green hydrogen.
The financing. One of the keys to the project, as happened with the MidCat, is who or how it will be funded. The Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, defended that, being a European project, the financing of the MidCat should be borne by the EU. In the case of BarMar, it has not been detailed where the money will come from or who will finance it. This is an essential matter. Spain bets on European funds. This will be one of the points of discussion in the coming weeks. The cost has not been determined either.
Winners and losers. To bury the MidCat, with a planned investment of more than 3,000 million in which Enagás had to participate, without any alternative would have been a real defeat for Spain and Portugal, which also benefits from the BarMar and will improve the interconnection with the Spanish network. With the proposed new infrastructure, Macron avoids internal conflicts by burying a gas pipeline that was supposed to run through a protected area. For their part Pedro Sánchez and Antonio Costa, the presidents of Spain and Portugal, can sell that they have reached an agreement for an interconnection with the rest of the continent. AGUSTÍ SALA/BARCELONA.