Spain to increase natural gas supply to France by 18 per cent

The supply of natural gas from Spain to France is to be increased by 18 per cent.

Teresa Ribera, Spain’s Minister for Ecological Transition, announced today, Thursday, September 22, that from November 1, the Euskadour Compression Plant, located in the Guipuzcoa city of Irun, will increase the supply of natural gas to Europe by 1,500 million cubic metres per year. That is 18 per cent more than normal.

The plant’s electric motor compressors will work at full power to supply France with the equivalent of 6 per cent of its gas consumption. Ribera revealed this during a visit to the facility in Irun, where she was accompanied by Arturo Gonzalo, the CEO of Enagas.

“The station is already technically prepared to send that gas when the French request it”, explained Ribera at the end of the visit to the regasification plant. It connects the Bay of Bizkaia Gas (BBG) in Bilbao and the Gaviota storage facility in Bermeo with the underground storage of Lussagnet in France.

As a result of the start-up of a new compressor – the plant had two electric ones until now – this higher flow is now achievable. According to data provided by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the capacity of the station will go from 2,000 million cubic metres (2 BCM) per year, to 3.5 BCM.

The other existing connection with France, located in Larrau, Navarra, has a capacity of 5 BCM per year, with which the possible supply to the Gallic country through these routes goes from 7 BCM to 8.5 BCM per year.

As part of the strategy to reduce dependence on Russian gas, the Government has accelerated the operation of the El Musel regasification plant in Gijon. Ribera also announced that three more projects have been approved that will maximize the connection with Italy.

To facilitate this, the pontoon of the Enagas regasification plant in the port of Barcelona will be adapted to increase the loading capacity that will be able to carry the gas to the Italian coast, as reported by larazon.es.

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