Spain presses Algeria to guarantee natural gas supply

Spain has sent another member of its government to Algeria to seek guarantees that its supply of natural gas won't be impacted when Algeria closes its pipeline through Morocco on Sunday

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For the second time in a month, a member of Spain’s government met with Algerian officials on Wednesday to guarantee the European country’s supply of natural gas after Algeria closes a pipeline that runs through Morocco this weekend.

While a leader in wind and solar power, Spain still relies heavily on energy imports, and Algeria provides over a third of its natural gas. Spanish officials worry that a shortage in supplies will augment skyrocketing energy prices that have made electricity bills a major problem for its left-wing coalition government.

The trip by Spain’s deputy prime minister for ecological transition, Teresa Ribera, to Algiers came only a month after the country's foreign minister travelled to the Algerian capital to discuss the gas supply that Spain fears could be a collateral victim of Algeria’s diplomatic spat with Morocco.

After meeting with Algeria's minister for energy and mining, Mohamed Arkab, Ribera thanked him for “his pledge to ensure the viability of the transport of natural gas and to honor the commitments for its purchase between different Algerian and Spanish companies.”

Algeria has said it won’t renew an agreement set to expire on Sunday that has kept its natural gas flowing through Morocco and onward to Spain for the past 25 years.

The pipeline that travels across northwest Africa before a short crossing of the Mediterranean at Zahara de los Atunes on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar supplied Spain with just over 10% of all its natural gas in 2020, according to CORES, Spain’s public corporation that watches over its strategic energy reserves.

A second, longer pipeline from Algeria to Almería in Spain’s southeastern shore currently provides 16% of its total natural gas imports.

There are plans to boost that pipeline’s capacity from eight to 10 million square meters in the coming months. Even so, that won't fully make up the shortfall unless boats can bring in enough liquefied natural gas to Spain directly from Algeria.

Ribera said that her counterpart also agreed to be prepared in case Spain requested to increase the supply of natural gas.

Spain’s diplomatic mission comes amid a spike in energy prices across Europe that are hitting the Iberian peninsula hard and driving up electricity bills for homes and businesses.

Ribera, a respected environmental policy maker, has been tasked by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to find a solution.

She called Spain’s relations with Algeria regarding the supply of natural gas “capital for the wellbeing of Spanish society.”