Spain to authorise the Gibraltar tube to operate in the opposite direction
Shortly, the Government of Spain will have to take a very delicate decision: to authorise the Gibraltar tube to operate in the opposite direction, from north to south.
Morocco expects it and relations with Algeria are worse than ever.
Surely that decision will have to be communicated to the European Union in order to prevent political risks.
Morocco already has everything ready for Spain to send gas through the Maghreb Europe gas pipeline, the conduction of two pipelines that Algeria closed in November last year after breaking diplomatic relations with its neighboring country, with which it accumulates so many tensions.
The pipeline, which reaches Spain through the Strait of Gibraltar, will soon operate in the opposite direction: from north to south. It could happen in the next two weeks.
Morocco needs the gas it obtained as a toll from the Maghreb Europe, about one billion cubic meters per year (1 bcm), which were destined for the manufacture of electricity in the tahaddart (near Tangier) and Ain Beni Mathar (in the east, near the border with Algeria).
Rabat also charged an economic toll. Those compensations were subject to tense periodic reviews until Algeria decided not to renegotiate the 25-year contract that expired last fall.
With this measure, they left Morocco without gas and sent a warning to Spain, which was trying to rebuild its relations with Morocco.
Morocco already has everything ready to receive gas from Spain, circumventing the Algerian blockade
Since then, Algerian gas only reaches Spain through the Medgaz (direct connection that runs through the Alboran Sea), conduction of a single pipeline that cannot absorb all the fuel transported by the Maghreb Europe.
Attention to this data, which helps us to explain a significant novelty of recent months: Spain is already importing more gas from the United States than from Algeria.
