MADRID, Aug 30 (Reuters) – A Spanish government minister on Tuesday criticized France’s reluctance to support a project to build a third gas connection through the Pyrenees to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, while France said that it would study the European proposals.
Russia’s decision to cut off gas supplies through a major pipeline for three days from Wednesday has increased pressure for Europe to stock up on gas before winter and protect itself from the fallout from the war in Ukraine.
Spain and Portugal have great gas import capacity and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suggested as the crisis worsened that a gas pipeline from Portugal, through Spain and France, to central Europe could help the situation. . France has been reticent, preferring new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.
The Spanish Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, spoke to a local radio about the reactivation of a gas pipeline through the Pyrenees, which was partially built before being shelved in 2019.
“We must prepare for the following winter, and in this context, to be able to complete an interconnection that did not make economic sense (…) but that at this time may be key to providing that supply that is lacking in central and northern Europe,” Rivera said.
“Well, the question it generates is: ‘Excuse me, is this in the interest of France or the interest of central and northern Europe?'”
Scholz met on Tuesday in Meseberg with the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and both called for a new gas pipeline from the Iberian Peninsula to improve supply, but avoided criticizing France.
Ribera and Sánchez have repeatedly said that the European Union would have to pay for any new energy interconnection.
France said earlier this month that new floating LNG terminals in northern and eastern Europe, especially in Germany, would be a faster and cheaper option than a new gas pipeline, which would not be ready in time to respond to the crisis. current.
But French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday that Paris had not ruled out the pipeline option. “Spain and Germany are two very close partners to France. So when they make a proposal, we will consider it,” he told reporters.
Ribera said the transit route to France could be completed in time for the winter of 2023, while another possible subsea pipeline route from the Spanish port of Barcelona to Livorno in Italy would take much longer. (Reporting by Isla Binnie; additional reporting by Thomas Leigh in Paris; edited in Spanish by Darío Fernández and Benjamín Mejías Valencia)
Source: Ambito
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