The third vice-president and Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, has reassured her Algerian counterpart, Mohamed Arka, that "under no circumstances" will Algerian gas be transported to Morocco.
Algeria has threatened to break its gas supply contracts with Spanish companies if a single drop of its gas is resold to Morocco as part of the new agreement with Spain to transport gas to the kingdom via the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline (GME).
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, expressed on Wednesday in Congress Spain’s desire to maintain "the best neighborly relations" with both Algeria and Morocco.
At the initiative of the Popular Party (PP), supported by the other parliamentary groups in Congress, with the exception of the PSOE, Podemos and Bildu, President Pedro Sanchez will be summoned to explain the fallout from his new relationship with Morocco, after the change of position on the Sahara, and its consequences on Spain’s relations with Algeria.
The Australian engineering company Worley has announced that it has been selected to carry out an initial feasibility study of the pipeline project that is to connect Nigeria to Morocco .
Algeria has still not digested Spain’s decision to support Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Sahara, even though it assures that for the moment, it will continue to supply it with gas.
Morocco has a strong potential for natural gas, whose attractiveness is constantly increasing. Graham Lyon, executive chairman of Sound Energy, assures that everyone now wants Moroccan gas.
Morocco announced on Monday its plan to prospect for oil, gas and tellurium in the Tarfaya area, off the coast of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. The news is worrying the Canarian authorities.
British company Chariot has deepened the exploration of the Anchois 2 well initially carried out by the Spanish company Repsol off the coast of Larache, and has confirmed the presence of a significant amount of gas. A bitter discovery for the Spanish Repsol.
In Morocco, large natural gas deposits have been discovered off the coast of Larache. The most important one is the one discovered by Repsol, a Spanish company for exploration, production, transportation and refining of oil and natural gas.
To cope with the ongoing energy crisis, Morocco wants to secure its natural gas supply by entering the international market. Several options from the tenders are currently being studied for the first deliveries, which should take place in the coming days.
Not content with raising the price of gas supplied to Spain, Algeria claims "technical problems" related to the extension of the Medgaz pipeline to reduce the amount of gas it delivers to the country.