Germany Looks For An Outlet For Algerian Gas
After they tried all possible solutions, the Europeans agreed that Algerian gas is the best option in light of the energy war that Moscow imposed after the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, within the framework of mutual bone-breaking operations.
Germany is the worst affected by the current energy crisis, due to its almost absolute dependence on Russian gas, which threatens to be cut off at any moment, is looking today for a ready-made alternative, and it is working hard on behalf of the rest of the European countries that suffer from the same problem, to resurrect an old project, the “MidCat” pipeline which links Spain and France, and then to the heart of the old continent, meaning that the Europeans seek to make Spain a link between them and Algeria in the field of gas.
In this regard, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for activating European solidarity in the field of gas and called for the construction of a pipeline that would start from Spain and Portugal and head towards central Europe, especially Germany through France but the success of this project remains subject to the necessity of Algeria’s cooperation, as it is linked to Spain with the “Medgaz” pipeline, which transports about eight billion cubic meters per year, based on the contracts signed between the two countries.
However, the Algerian-Spanish relations are going through the worst stage in their history, nearly seven months ago, when the Prime Minister of the Madrid Government, Pedro Sanchez, decided to abandon his country’s historical position on the Western Sahara issue in support of the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination and to go towards supporting the project of autonomy, which is rejected by the Polisario Front, and Algeria as well.
The lack of cooperation by the Algerian party means the inevitable failure of the MidCat pipeline project, because Algeria’s gas exports halved during the last seven months towards Spain, driven by the worsening relations between Algiers and Madrid, and this makes it difficult to rely entirely on liquefied gas imported through giant tankers from the United States of America, Nigeria and Qatar, due to the difficulty of providing the required quantities, as well as the high prices compared to gas that comes through pipelines, as in the Algerian case, especially since Berlin alone imports from Russian gas more than fifty billion cubic meters.
Spanish media reports speak about the Europeans colliding with an unwelcome reality that is considered one of the results of the political mistakes of the Spanish Prime Minister, represented in Algeria’s decision to transfer the centre of its gas exports from Spain to Italy in a retaliatory measure from Madrid, provided that Italy assumes the role that Spain is trying to play over the past years by providing giant infrastructures for storing, transferring and exporting gas, a dilemma that European countries are trying to resolve without success so far.
As the iron fist continues between Algeria and Madrid, Spanish politicians continue to criticize their prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, accusing him of missing out on the opportunity for their country to invest in the current global energy crisis, which Madrid could have exploited through the infrastructure it prepared in advance, to store, process and export gas to the rest of the European countries, due to his uncalculated political lapses, the consequences, as the Spaniards fear that their country will turn into a mere transit land for Algerian gas towards the heart of Europe, without benefiting from it, as it planned to do so.
It should be noted here that the severe criticism levelled by the Minister of Economy and Finance for the province of Madrid, Javier Fernandez Lasquetty, attacked Sanchez against the background of the crisis he caused with Algeria when he said that “Spain does not have a problem with Russian gas, but with the gas that comes from Algeria, because of Sanchez’s bad decisions”.
