Spain Confident Algeria Will Continue Gas Exports Despite Tensions

Algeria is the third largest gas supplier in Europe with 83% of exports, 65% of which go to Spain and Italy in 2021, or 55 billion m3 compared to 38.2 billion m3 in 2020. Even better, 90% of its GDP depends on the energy sector. For these reasons, the Spanish intelligence services are convinced that Algeria cannot stop exporting gas to Spain, because a closure of the Medgaz would create a significant "shortfall" that it could not recover, even if it increased the capacity of the Transmed, the gas pipeline that connects it to Italy.

To read: Algeria Threatens Gas Supply to Spain Amid Western Sahara Dispute

For La Moncloa, Spain’s change of position on the Sahara, formalized on Friday, could make Spain the main "hub" for the arrival of gas and, in the long term, the management of green hydrogen in Europe. This decision, which satisfies the Spanish government, has made it possible to obtain from Morocco a commitment to renounce its claims on Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands, to reopen land borders with the two autonomous cities, resume maritime and air links and strengthen migration cooperation.

For its part, the Polisario Front denounced on Sunday this change in Spain’s position, which according to it, has yielded to the "pressures" and "blackmail" of Morocco, adding that this decision does not change the legal status of the Sahara which, from the point of view of international law, continues to be a "non-self-governing territory".