The Algerian authorities have reduced gas deliveries to Spain. According to daily data from the Enagás company, exports through the Medgaz pipeline fell by around 25%.
Did Spain receive enough Algerian gas to the point of sending it to the Kingdom of Morocco, with which relations have returned to good shape? Nothing is less sure. The recent agreements concluded between Rabat and Madrid, stipulating the transport of gas via the GME gas pipeline in the opposite direction from Spain to Morocco, have obviously not reassured the Algerian authorities who would have initiated a phase of reduction of the quantities of gas supplied to the Iberian Kingdom.
Algeria would have lowered the supply of natural gas to Spain, according to daily data from the company Enagás. This Spanish structure in charge of maintaining and developing gas infrastructure indicated that exports via the Medgaz gas pipeline fell by around 25% last week, compared to levels recorded in mid-March. From around 312MWh/d, deliveries would have increased to around 234MWh/d. That is a decrease of about 80GWh per day.
This decrease underlines the Spanish press, is consecutive to the support of Pedro Sanchez to the Moroccan plan of autonomy of Western Sahara. On March 14, in a letter addressed to King Mohammed VI, Madrid recognized the Moroccanness of the Sahara. While Algeria had not finished denouncing this change of position of Spain, the echo is made of the conclusion of a gas agreement between Rabat and Madrid. Gas purchased in Europe, which will pass through Spain to be rerouted to Morocco.
A deal that did not please Algiers who warned against any hijacking by Spain of Algerian gas. “Any routing of Algerian natural gas delivered to Spain, whose destination is none other than that provided for in the contracts, will be considered as a breach of contractual commitments, and consequently, could lead to the breach of the contract binding Sonatrach to its Spanish customers”, had threatened the Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines, Mohamed Akrab.
Even if guarantees are given by the Spanish authorities, who have insisted that the gas which will be transported to Morocco will come from Europe, Algiers has taken it upon itself to reduce the quantities of this energy supplied to the Iberian kingdom. It remains to be seen whether this measure will have an impact on the gas agreement between Rabat and Madrid. For the moment, three Moroccan power plants are struggling, after Algeria stopped gas delivery via the GME (Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline) which passed through Morocco.
