Will Europe, which refused from Russian gas, be saved by Spain

Sergey Kondratiev commented to the Izvestia newspaper about the creation of a gas hub in Spain.

Sergey Kondratiev, a senior expert at the Institute for Energy and Finance, told Izvestiya that in the short term, Spain still cannot become a European gas hub due to its geographical position.

- So far, Spain does not have sufficient capacity to supply gas to France and other European countries. Although it is a major European center of gas consumption, the Iberian Peninsula is still closed,” he noted.

At the same time, in his opinion, in the horizon of five to seven years, Spain can become an important transit country for gas from Africa to Central Europe.

- Algeria is now planning to increase gas supplies to Europe, the project of the so-called Trans-Sahara gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria and further to Europe is being discussed. In this case, one could talk about strengthening the position of Madrid in the European market, - Sergey Kondratiev suggested.

On July 29, the Algeria Press Service reported that Algeria, Nigeria and Niger had signed a memorandum of understanding providing for the resumption of work on the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline project.

Nevertheless, according to Sergei Kondratiev, in order to use Spain as a transporter of African gas from the EU countries, serious coordination of efforts will be required. And this seems unlikely against the backdrop of attempts by some EU countries to partially nationalize the gas sector.