Non -Russian flow. Why Germany supported the construction of a gas pipeline from Spain to Central Europe

Video Day in 2019 was abandoned by its economical inappropriateness in the context of an increase in the share of renewable energy and the availability of cheap Russian fuel. But everything has changed. “Now this will make a significant contribution to the discharge and facilitate the supply situation.

And so, together with my colleagues from Spain and Portugal, as well as in conversations with the President of France and the President of the European Commission, I strongly advocated that we take up such a project, ”Solz said. To complete Midcat, you need to build a 226-kilometer segment from Ostalrick in Spanish Catalonia to Barbare in France. Its design capacity is just less than 8 billion cubic meters per year.

Back in March, the Spanish government first through anonymous statements, and then publicly began a advocacy of restoring this project against the background of energy crisis in Europe. It is expected that it will take at least two years to sell the gas. In 2018, the cost of the project was estimated at 440 million euros. Spain advocates that the construction of construction is carried out by the EU.

Why do Midcat is needed? Spain has excess sources of natural gas that cannot be transported to France or Germany. First of all, these are six LNG regasification plants. They have not exceeded 40%in recent years. In addition, the Medgaz underwater gas pipeline has been laid between Spain and Algeria with an annual capacity of 8 billion cubic meters. That is, Spain can become an additional node for the import of natural gas into Central Europe instead of Russian "blue fuel".