- Spain increased its natural gas exports to Morocco while curtailing deliveries to European neighbours like Italy.
- Algeria has threatened to terminate its gas contract with Spain if any Algerian gas molecules reach Morocco.
Spain increased its natural gas exports to Morocco while curtailing deliveries to European neighbours like Italy, according to Spanish news outlet Vozpópuli. Data from Spain’s oil reserves agency, Cores, reveals a significant shift in gas exports.
In June 2024, Morocco accounted for 18.5% of Spain’s total gas exports, up from a mere 0.1 per cent in June 2022. Over the past year, Spain has sent a staggering 9,338 gigawatt hours of natural gas to Morocco through the Maghreb-Europe pipeline, a 155-fold increase from the previous year.
This surge in gas exports to Morocco is due to the diplomatic tensions between Algeria and Morocco, which led to the closure of a key pipeline in October 2021.
Morocco has turned to Spain to utilise its regasification infrastructure and import liquefied natural gas (LNG) to avoid an energy crisis.
Algeria has threatened to terminate its gas contract with Spain if any Algerian gas molecules reach Morocco. To maintain its energy relationship with Algiers, the Spanish government has repeatedly assured that none of its gas supplies will be re-piped to Morocco.
While increasing its deliveries to Morocco, Spain has reduced its gas exports to Italy. The Barcelona-Livorno pipeline, which uses smaller LNG carriers, accounted for 18.4 per cent of Spanish gas exports in 2023. However, by June 2024, this share had fallen to just 4.4 per cent. The impact of cuts in Russian gas supplies on Italy has made Italy secure new deals directly with Algeria, and its storage levels are above 90 per cent.
Industry speculation suggests the decreased cooperation between Spain and Italy may also be due to strained relations between the two countries’ governments.
According to Cores data, Spain continues to source 29.6 per cent of its gas from Algeria, with another 19 per cent still coming from Russia despite the supply disruptions.