España intenta asegurarse el suministro de gas pese al conflicto entre Argelia y Marruecos

With the rise in electricity prices becoming a social and political problem, the government has an energy-related issue that may be more relevant: securing the supply of natural gas for the coming months. This is the objective of the trip that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, is making this week, accompanied by the presidents of the companies most closely related to this issue: Antoni Llardén, from Enagás, and Francisco Reynés, from Naturgy.

Algeria is a basic country for the purchase of the blue hydrocarbon for Spain, supplying around 45% of consumption, until now via three routes: the Maghreb-Europe pipeline, which enters Spain via Tarifa from Tangiers; the Medgaz pipeline, which does not cross Morocco and enters via Almeria from Beni Saf; and with gas tankers.

In addition to the tension in the international energy commodities markets, in the case of the Iberian Peninsula, there is the problem caused by the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the aforementioned Maghreb countries, which includes the closure of their Algerian airspace to Morocco. In this context, experts believe that Algeria wants to cancel the Maghreb gas pipeline in order to prevent part of the gas from being consumed by its neighbouring country, as agreed more than two decades ago.

The conflict in North Africa also comes at a time when the Maghreb gas pipeline contract expires on 31 October, and Algeria is not willing to facilitate renegotiation. Despite the existence of the other gas highway, the Maghreb-Europe pipeline has a capacity to transport 11 bcm (billions of cubic metres), while the Medgaz pipeline has a capacity of 8 bcm, although it was agreed in July to extend it to 10 bcm.

The Spanish government is also trying to mediate so that Morocco and Algeria sit down to negotiate a new contract for the old pipeline, although the historic conflict between the two countries is worsening due to the impossibility of finding a solution to the Western Sahara issue, in which Spain is also a party.

Meanwhile, European justice has ruled in favour of the Polisario Front's main thesis and has annulled the agricultural and fisheries agreements signed by the European Commission with Rabat in 2019. The cause is the failure to adequately consult the Saharawi people, as demanded by a previous ruling that had already overturned the first version of these agreements, which affects Western Sahara, a territory pending decolonisation.