France plans pipeline from Spain to central Europe for new energy sources

France is looking into building a pipeline from the Iberian peninsula to the south of the country in a bid to open up new energy sources in the absence of natural gas from Russia.

"Spain and Germany are two close partners of France; if they make a proposal, we will examine it," dpa news agency quoted Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire as saying here on Tuesday.

So far, France, which relies heavily on nuclear power, has been cautious about reviving the Midcat natural gas pipeline, which was shut down in 2017 as it was unprofitable.

The Midcat pipeline is to run from Barcelona across the Pyrenees to a connecting point with the French grid in Barbairan in southern France.

In Spain, the pipeline is complete as far as Hostalric, 106 km south of the border; in France, around 120 km are missing.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, like the Spanish government, had already campaigned for the construction of the pipeline to open up new energy sources in view of the war in Ukraine and a possible end to Russian gas supplies.

Spain sees this as a project of European importance, which it says must also be financed by the EU.

The natural gas that is to flow north through the pipe could be obtained from different sources in Spain and Portugal, since both countries together have a total of seven LNG terminals.

There are also two pipelines to the gas supplier Algeria in North Africa.

Later, as part of the energy transition, so-called green hydrogen, which is generated with the help of wind or sun, could also be passed through.

So far there are only two smaller gas pipelines from Spain across the Pyrenees to the north with limited capacity.

--IANS

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