“France pulled out a few years ago after an investigation among their own French energy suppliers,” says Joan Pons, who worked for many years as an engineer for the major Catalan gas companies. “They said they were not interested in the pipeline and that the energy generated by the nuclear power plants was sufficient. The gas pipeline was over.”
The French only wanted to go further if Brussels made the investment, he continues. “But Europe was no longer interested in the management either. The gas supplies via Russia’s Gazprom were guaranteed and reliable, as it was looked at throughout Europe. But that idea has of course been completely changed by the war in Ukraine.”
LNG from the US or Qatar as a solution
The construction of the MidCat pipeline between Spain and France started ten years ago. The gas tube was a European idea. It was to complement two existing pipelines in the Basque Country and ultimately double the grid capacity. European countries could thus obtain liquefied gas (also known as LNG) from the United States or Qatar, for example, and would be much less dependent on a single Russian supplier.
The project was never completed, as France withdrew in 2019. “The French actually thought the project was far too expensive. Local residents in the French Pyrenees were against it, and it was bad for the environment,” correspondent Frank Renout said. “Another argument was that the pipeline simply could not compensate for the Russian gas.”
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