The Irun gas pipeline, located in the rural area of Meaka, in an image captured this week. /
Euskadour becomes the main “contingency measure” in Spain to increase supply to Europe in the face of problems opening the new tube in Catalonia
The energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine and the French opposition to the Midcat project in Catalonia to supply more gas to Europe have put the Irun gas pipeline in the spotlight. The Euskadour tube is the central government’s main “contingency measure” today to reinforce the transfer of this energy source to Europe in the face of the harsh winter, with special emphasis on Germany. For this reason, the Spanish Executive is determined to begin the works to improve the Irun facility shortly to finish them within two or three months and increase its capacity by 75%, according to the manager of the state gas system, Enagás.
To do this, a new “turbocompressor” will be installed to increase the volume and speed of circulation, through the ducts, of this source of energy between Bahía Bizkaia Gas and France, for subsequent distribution to the European Union. The Irun gas pipeline will increase its capacity by 75%, going from transporting its current 2 bcm (billion cubic meters) per year to about 3.5 bcm, 1.5 more.
The improvement of the Irun gas pipeline is today the main room for maneuver available to the Ministry of Ecological Transition led by Teresa Ribera to reinforce supply to Europe, as Germany claims, after confirming this week France, with its president Emmanuel Macron at the head, its opposition to the trans-Pyrenean tube through Girona. France continues to argue environmental reasons and that the facility will not be effective as it would take a long time to build. Irun and Larrau (Navarra) are currently the only two gas pipelines that connect the peninsula with Europe and the Gipuzkoan one, which connects with Bergara and crosses the border at Biriatou, is the only one in which Madrid can act to increase supply capacity this winter to Europe after Russian restrictions. Some limitations that mainly affect Germany, the industrial and economic engine of the European Union and whose president, Olaf Scholz, has called on Spain to increase its production. The European Union wants its reserves to reach at least 80% by November 1.
The conflict between France and Spain over the Midcat gives more strategic value to the Gipuzkoan facility
And Euskadour plays an important role in this collection, a compression station quite unknown until now, even for the residents of Irundarra. Inaugurated in 2006 and located on a slope of Mount San Marcial, on the side of the A-8 motorway in the area of the rural neighborhood of Meaka, it has now been revalued geostrategically since Minister Ribera set in the best of cases, if the conflict were unblocked, in eight months the start-up of the Midcat. It is not ruled out that the Catalan trans-Pyrenees project will finally resurface with financing from the European Commission, if it achieves a global agreement, through recovery funds, but meanwhile Irun is the only possibility for improvement in Spain as of today.
From Biscay to the Landes
The Basque pipe connects the Bizkaia Bahía Gas regasification plant (port of Zierbena), which receives methane tankers from all over the world, with the underground storage facility in Lussagnet (the Landes), for subsequent distribution of the gas throughout Central Europe. The improvement works will serve to immediately increase the contribution of gas from Spain as much as possible to try to cover the demand of the cold months from autumn/winter, when it seems impossible for the Catalan tube to be operational. Madrid is not going to carry out works at the moment on the tube located in the Navarran town of Larrau, with a greater capacity than the one in Irun.
The Executive, through the company Enagás, is going to begin as soon as possible the works to install an additional compressor that will allow expanding the supply capacity. The turbocharger compresses the gas at that border point with France and causes it to flow faster, thus increasing the transfer capacity. The compressors are used to move the gas and prevent it from getting stuck on its way through the pipeline tubes. The remodeling work will be carried out in coordination with Teréga, the manager of the gas system in the south of France, to “maximize all possible options”, they point out from Enagás.
In this way, Euskadur will increase its supply capacity from the current 2 bcm per year (approximately 2,100 million cubic metres) to 3.5 bcm (3,200 million cubic metres), 75% more, adding 1.5 bcm more year. Between Irun and Larrau there is a total capacity of 7 bcm (7,400 million cubic meters per year) which will now be expanded to 8.5 bcm (about 9,000 million cubic meters). The bcm is the measurement used to account for gas and each one represents billions of cubic meters of gas, although the amount of a bcm can vary depending on the field from which the gas is extracted and its amount of energy.
With the work in Irun, Spain hopes to increase its transfer capacity by more than 20% through these two northern border tubes, in line with what Minister Ribera announced nine days ago. Currently between both stations they can barely export 8,000 million cubic meters a year, which represents around 13% of the gas needed to fill European reserves, when experts calculate that the regasification capacity could rise ten times more.
Future
The works on the Irun gas pipeline, the exact cost of which is unknown, cannot be delayed since the fall in temperatures will arrive in countries such as Germany in the fall. Depending on the events, the Government will decide whether to undertake further improvements to the Irun gas pipeline. Until July 31, Irun had increased gas transportation by 138% compared to the same period in 2021, according to Enagás data, mainly due to increased demand in the current context of energy crisis.
Between July 1 and 18, the Euskadour tube transported 64% of the connected gas that goes from the peninsula to Europe. In that period, around 1,280 GWh were exported from Spain from the peninsula through international connections, of which 815 transited through the tube of the border town.
Irun is therefore presented as a partial solution while Europe looks for alternatives. France insists on its opposition to Midcat, and proposes as an alternative “a faster solution” based on building methane terminals in maritime areas of countries such as Germany.
The last solution that some experts point to is to convince Norway, a country that is not a member of the European Union and a producer of oil and gas, to reduce the price of this second material to contribute to the economic stability of the entire Old Continent. .