LNG for Europe: Spain’s key role in gas

Thanks to many liquefied natural gas terminals, Spain is important for Europe’s energy supply. New pipelines could increase the status of the country. But how does that fit with the move away from fossil fuels?

Seven out of 26 EU terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) are in Spain and Portugal, the largest in Europe is in Barcelona. But there is currently a problem: the pipelines from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Europe are a bottleneck. Since Russia stopped supplying gas to Poland, Bulgaria, Finland and recently also to the Netherlands and Denmark, the two pipelines between Spain and France have been fully utilized.

Possible new pipelines

But: Two more connections, one to France and one to Italy, could ideally be transporting gas in two to three years. The transport capacity would more than double.

A projected undersea connection to Italy would be particularly advantageous, says Arturo Gonzalo, CEO of the Spanish gas network operator Enagas. “This pipeline is very attractive because it would bring the gas from the Portuguese and Spanish systems, and in particular from Europe’s largest terminal in Barcelona, ​​to the heart of the European gas network – Italy has many connections in the European system,” said Gonzalo.

Do more lines still make sense?

There should also be a gap closure for the MidCat pipeline. Here only a few hundred kilometers are missing from the national border between Spain and France. But: dependence on Russia or not – does it really make sense to invest another three to four billion euros in pipelines when climate change actually means we have to move away from fossil fuels?

“One could get the idea, because the goal is to be CO2-neutral by 2050,” says Gonzalo. “By then, hydrocarbons have to be replaced. But the strategic strength is that new pipelines can now be built 100 percent suitable for hydrogen. The infrastructure that gives us security of supply today will help with decarbonization tomorrow.”

Future-proof with hydrogen

This applies, for example, to blast furnaces in which coal is to be replaced by hydrogen. The chemical industry will also have to switch from natural gas to hydrogen for many processes. In fact, the EU Commission had already set goals before the war in Ukraine: 20 billion tons of “green” hydrogen should be available by 2030, four times more than today. At least half of it should be produced in Europe.

Numerous pilot projects for green hydrogen are already at the start. Portugal, for example, is investing more than a billion euros to also produce green hydrogen and ammonia at the site of its LNG terminal in Sines – 50,000 tons each per year, Environment and Climate Minister Duerte Cordeiro promises.

Enormously high power requirements

But the electricity requirement for the hydrogen quantities targeted by 2030 is huge: 100,000 megawatts from renewable sources are required in addition to today’s production.

An exciting economic perspective for Spain and Portugal – because both countries have locational advantages when it comes to generating electricity from sunlight and wind power. In addition, Portugal already has pipelines that are prepared for transporting hydrogen. Can be retrofitted in Spain. Existing pipelines from Algeria and Morocco could in future route green hydrogen from North Africa to Europe.

In the relatively short term, a Mediterranean pipeline to Italy and a gap closure to France could help to cover Europe’s gas needs with LNG – and at the same time play a significant role in phasing out this fossil fuel in the medium term.