Spain will export gas to Morocco, it has said, but will ensure these flows do not include Algerian gas.
Spain’s Minister for the Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera said the country had made a commitment to Algeria. “Not one single molecule of [Algeria’s] gas” supplied to Spain will reach Morocco, she said, according to Spain’s CincoDias.
Ribera was talking at an event organised by Cadena Ser, in Andalusia.
Algeria has threatened to cut off gas supplies to Spain, in response to the plan.
“It is Morocco that contracts LNG volumes”, she said. The Gazoduc Maghreb Europe (GME) pipeline will carry these contracted volumes from the north to the south.
“The origin of that gas and the place where that gas is unloaded will be transparent and public so that we are sure that the volume, origin and destination complies with that commitment with Algeria,” she said.
Algeria halted gas flows to Spain via Morocco in October 2021. It did, though, pledge that it would continue to meet its Spanish supply obligations via other methods, primarily via the direct Medgaz link.
Algeria is unlikely to want to halt gas flows to Spain entirely, but politically it requires distance from Morocco.
Algeria expected Spain to begin gas flows to Morocco on April 27 or 28.
LNG plans
Morocco is in the process of trying to secure its own regasification capacity but this is only likely to begin in 2025. Spain, meanwhile, has spare LNG capacity but cannot easily export these supplies to the rest of Europe.
Spain has moved closer to Morocco in recent months. A declaration on Western Sahara in March raised hackles in Algiers.
Europe is largely united in condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. African states are not. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had a discussion with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in April.
The two leaders exchanged congratulations and talked about an exchange of visits from top officials. They also noted the importance of a “political solution” to the Ukrainian “crisis”.