The Spanish Minister for Ecological Transition meets in Paris with her French counterpart and the Minister of Economy to advance the project
The BarMar, the new submarine interconnection that would transport green hydrogen between Barcelona and Marseille (France), could be operational “in four or five years”, according to calculations by the Spanish Minister for Energy Transition, Teresa Ribera. Faced with the frontal opposition of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to the construction of the MidCat gas pipeline, which was to cross the Pyrenees, the Spanish Government sought other alternatives.
Madrid studied, with the help of Enagás, the possibility of building an underwater pipeline between Barcelona and Livorno (Italy), but in the end it came to the conclusion that the connection between Barcelona and Marseille was the most direct and efficient way to connect the Iberian Peninsula with Central Europe.
“It’s cheaper and makes more sense to do it through Marseille. In fact, it is rare for Spain to facilitate the exit of any good or service bypassing France. Given the difficulties that France posed (to the Mid Cat), we are willing to look for an alternative route that would avoid passing through France. But France understood that it could not stay on the sidelines,” explained Ribera in Paris, after meeting with the French ministers of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, and Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
Spain, France and Portugal finally buried the MidCat on Thursday. Paris was opposed to this project because it considered that it was not a short-term solution to the EU’s energy problems derived from the cut off of Russian gas supplies due to the war in Ukraine.
Pending works
Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, Macron and Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa announced in Brussels the creation of “a great green energy corridor” that will connect the three countries with the European Union energy network. They promised to complete the renewable gas connection between Portugal and Spain 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 pipes in central Europe,” the minister explained in statements to the Spanish press. The layout of the BarMar and the schedule for its construction could be further specified in view of the Euro-Mediterranean Summit, which will take place on December 9 in Alicante.
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