Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline

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Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline is an operating natural gas pipeline.

Location

The pipeline runs from Hassi R'Mel, Algeria through Morocco and under the Mediterranean Sea to Cordoba, Spain.

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Project Details

• Owners: Sonatrach, Kingdom of Morocco, Enagás, Transgas
• Current capacity: 116.5 million cubic feet per day
• Length: 1,010 miles / 1,620 km
• Status: Operating
• Start Year: 1996

Background

The Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline links the Hassi R'mel field in Algeria through Morocco with the city of Córdoba in Andalusia, Spain, where it is connected with the Spanish and Portuguese gas grids. It supplies mainly Spain and Portugal, as well as Morocco with natural gas.

The pipeline was first proposed in 1963 by French companies. This proposal foresaw prolongation of the pipeline to Strasbourg in France. However, because of disputes over the sovereignty of the Western Sahara territory, any route from Algeria through Morocco to Spain was prevented. Also natural gas consumption in Spain was too low to justify the pipeline construction.

In 1992, ministers of Spain and Algeria agreed to start construction of the pipeline. At the same time Sonatrach and Enagás signed a long-term supply agreement. They followed by signing the Moroccan Convention establishing the procedures for the construction, operation and use of the pipeline. In the same year, the project company Europe - Maghreb Pipeline Ltd. was established. In 1994, Transgas of Portugal joined the project. Construction started on 11 October 1994. The pipeline came online on 1 November 1996 and it was commissioned on 9 November 1996. The Spanish section was inaugurated in Cordoba on 9 December 1996. The Portuguese section was inaugurated on 27 February 1997. In 2000, the pipeline was named after Pedro or Pere Duran Farell.

Technical description

The pipeline is 1,620 km (1,010 mi) long and it cost US$2.3 billion. It was built by Bechtel and Saipem. The pipeline consists of five sections. The pipeline's Algerian, Moroccan and Andalusian sections are 48 in. (1200 mm) in diameter; the link to Portugal through Extremadura is 28 in. (710mm)/32 in. (810mm) in diameter; and the underwater sections consist of two 22 in. (560 mm) lines.[1]

An initial capacity of the pipeline was 8.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year, which was later expanded to 12 bcm.

Route and operators

The Algerian section of pipeline, 515 km (320 mi) long, runs from the Hassi R'mel field in Algeria to the Moroccan border. It is owned and operated by the Algerian energy company, Sonatrach. The 522 km (324 mi) long Moroccan section is owned by the Moroccan State and operated by Metragaz, a joint venture of Sagane (a subsidiary of Spanish Gas Natural), Transgas (Portugal), and SNPP (Morocco). The length of the offshore section crossing the Strait of Gibraltar is 45 km (28 mi); it is owned jointly by Enagás (Spain), Transgas, and the Moroccan state. The length of the Andalusian section is 269 km (167 mi), and the Portuguese section 269 km (167 mi). In addition, there are 270 km (170 mi) of pipeline in the autonomous community of Extremadura.

Articles and resources

External articles

Wikipedia also has an article on Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline (Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License].