Spain, Portugal, France ask EU for greater access to Iberian gas

By GREGORY VISCUSI and ESTEBAN DUARTE
Bloomberg

Spain, Portugal and France called on the European Union (EU) to build more gas pipelines, saying liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in the Iberian peninsula could replace 40% of the supply currently provided by Russia.

French President Francois Hollande, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, and EU President Jean-Claude Juncker met today in Madrid to discuss projects that would allow Spain and Portugal to export gas and electricity via France.

“We have presented concrete plans so that the Iberian peninsula ceases to be an energy island,” Rajoy said at a joint press conference after the meeting.

The European Union in 2002 set a target for its 28 members to be able to transmit 10% of their installed electricity generating capacity across borders by 2020.

France and Spain are at about 3%, according to the Spanish. That figure doubled last month after the inauguration of a link between Santa Llogaia and Baixas along the Mediterranean coast doubled electricity interconnection capacity between the countries to 2,800 megawatts. One megawatt can supply about 2,000 European households.

“We have been too slow since 2002,” Rajoy said.

Supply Diversification

A similar project being planned along the two countries’ Atlantic coast could double that figure again, French officials say. Other projects across the Pyrenees are in earlier planning stages, they say. And Hollande today said France and Spain were reactivating a project for a gas link dubbed MidCat because it would run between Catalonia and France’s Midi region. Spain’s LNG import capacity is the world’s fourth largest.

“With the projects agreed today, we are increasing the diversification of electricity and gas supplies in Europe,” Juncker said. “The steps agreed today will take us toward our common goal: a better connected European market and more security of supply to all Europeans.”

Electrical interconnection rates among other members of the EU vary from 245% for Luxembourg to 2% for Poland, according to the European Commission. The island nations of Cyprus and Malta are at zero, though Britain is at 6%.

Of the 248 “Projects of Common Interest” that are eligible for EU funding that the bloc agreed in 2013, 137 involved electricity and, of those, 52 are inter-connections, according to an EU policy paper released Feb. 28.

• Most Read
• Most Commented