The Diplomat
A breakdown on the Algerian side of the Medgaz gas pipeline linking Algeria and Spain yesterday caused “a temporary interruption of gas supplies to Spain”, Algerian hydrocarbons company Sonatrach said in a statement.
“The technical teams have been working to carry out the necessary repairs and restore the gas supply to Spain, which is now “flowing normally”, Enagas sources said. Enagás EnergyData, the application that monitors inflows and outflows to the Spanish Gas System, and the volume of gas available in the transmission network indicate that the flow is now normal.
Enagás sources explained to Efe that the supply was not interrupted at any time, and that the incident only required maintenance work to be carried out for about two hours, after which the service was restored to normal.
At midday, during routine maintenance work at Medgaz’s Beni Saaf Compression Station, flows from the Algerian plant to the Almeria International Connection were temporarily halted.
This caused a decrease, but not an interruption, in the flows entering Spain via this international connection; on the Spanish side, added the same sources, who insisted that the security of supply was not affected.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition pointed out that the failure caused a drop in inflows of 200,000 Nm3/h, to 704,000 Nm3/h.
Algeria decided last year not to extend an agreement to export gas to Spain via a pipeline through Morocco, which accounted for almost all gas supplies to the neighbouring Arab country.
It currently supplies gas to Spain through the Medgaz undersea pipeline and by sea Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
Sunday’s incident occurred at a time of diplomatic crisis between Spain and Algeria, which was the main supplier of gas to Madrid until February.
