Morocco, Spain and Russia give a second life to the Maghreb Europe gas pipeline (GME)

Mehdi Marroun
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1:04 p.m. – January 15, 2025

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification operations in Spain saw a significant decrease of 17.6% compared to the previous year, according to data released. Spanish facilities unloaded around fourteen LNG cargoes, a reduction of three cargoes compared to December 2023.

In this context, Morocco continued to import LNG via Spain, where the cargoes are then regasified before being injected into the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline (GME), thus ensuring continuity in the kingdom’s energy supply. . “On the basis of commercial relations and good neighborliness, the first shipment through the Maghreb gas pipeline of LNG [gaz naturel liquéfié] previously acquired by Morocco on international markets and landed in a Spanish regasification plant, took place at the end of June [2022]»indicated the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition.

Spain announced the same year that it was going to re-export gas to Morocco via the GME, which Algeria has no longer supplied since the end of October 2021. Enagás, manager of the Spanish gas network, has the task of “check the origin of the LNG tanker transporting the gas” purchased by Morocco and, after unloading thereof, produces a certificate with “the relevant data, thus avoiding the export of gas which has not been unloaded for this purpose”after Algerian protests.

Russia stands out

Available information specifies that Morocco, among seven Arab countries, appears in the statistics of Russian LNG importers in December 2024. Although the kingdom does not have direct pipeline connections with Russia, it is however cited in the rankings. of Russian gas importers for the ninth consecutive month. This state of affairs underlines the capital importance of Spain as a key transit point for Russian LNG destined for Morocco.

In a more general order, the revenues generated by Russia thanks to its exports of oil, gas and coal saw a slight increase in December 2024, with a total reaching 652 million euros per day (or 672 million dollars), as indicated in a recent report from the energy research unit. This demonstrates the continued resilience of the Russian economy in a global context marked by geopolitical tensions, where countries such as China, India, and Turkey continue to play a dominant role among the largest energy importers. Russian.