The Spanish Minister for Ecological Transition meets in Paris with her French counterpart and the Minister of Economy to take the project forward
The BarMar, the new submarine interconnection that would carry green hydrogen between Barcelona and Marseille (France), could be operational “in four or five years”, according to calculations by Spain’s Energy Transition Minister, Teresa Ribera. Faced with frontal opposition from French President Emmanuel Macron to the construction of the MidCat gas pipeline, which would traverse the Pyrenees, the Spanish government looked for other alternatives.
Madrid, with the help of Enagás, studied the possibility of building an underwater pipeline between Barcelona and Livorno (Italy), but finally concluded that the connection between Barcelona and Marseille was the most direct and efficient way to explore the Iberian Peninsula. with Central Europe.
“It is cheaper and more logical to do it via Marseille. In fact, it is rare for Spain to facilitate the exit of goods or services bypassing France. Given the difficulties France presented (for the Mid Cat), we are willing to seek an alternative route that France would avoid. But France understood that it could not stand on the sidelines,” Ribera stated in Paris, after meeting the French Ministers of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, and the Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier- runacher.
Spain, France and Portugal finally buried the MidCat on Thursday. Paris opposed this project because it believed it was not a short-term solution to the EU’s energy problems resulting from the disruption of Russia’s gas supply as a result of the war in Ukraine.
Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, Macron and Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa announced in Brussels the creation of “a major green energy corridor” that will connect the three countries to the European Union’s energy network. They pledged to complete the Portugal-Spain renewable gas link between Celourico da Beira and Zamora (CelZa) and to build a new pipeline to transport green hydrogen between Barcelona and Marseille (BarMar).
France, for its part, will have to work on the interconnection between Marseille and “the great skeleton of hydrogen pipelines in Central Europe,” the minister said in statements to the Spanish press. The layout of the BarMar and the timetable for its construction can be further specified in view of the Euro-Mediterranean Summit, which will take place in Alicante on 9 December.
Source: La Verdad
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