The keys to BarMar, the future marine gas pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille

Given France’s refusal to promote the MidCat, which projected a gas connection through the Catalan Pyrenees, the alternative of this submarine pipeline has emerged as unexpected.

Given France’s refusal to promote the MidCat, which projected a gas connection through the Catalan Pyrenees, the alternative of BarMar, an underwater conduit between Barcelona and Marseille, has emerged as unexpected with the agreement of the three countries involved and the harmony between the Generalitat and the Spanish Government.

The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez; The French head of state, Emmanuel Macron, and the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, closed this Thursday in Brussels the agreement that must materialize this submarine pipeline to initially transport gas and, in a few years, green hydrogen.

The three leaders reported that they will meet again in Alicante on December 9, coinciding with the Euro-Mediterranean summit to be held in that city, to decide the calendar, sources of financing and cost issues related to the implementation of BarMar.

A few hours after the announcement, however, it is already beginning to be glimpsed what this future submarine conduit will be like. What do we know so far?:

BETWEEN 5 AND 7 YEARS

The fact that a three-way agreement has been closed means that the technical work to start the BarMar can start as soon as possible, but this will not prevent it from having to wait a few years for what is projected on paper to be a tangible reality.

Spanish sources pointed out yesterday, after the agreement was announced, that in a period between 4 and 5 years the BarMar could already be built. The third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, said Friday that since this is a new design “logically it will take more time”: 5, 6 or 7 years, according to her initial calculations.

EUROPEAN FUNDING

The Secretary of State for Energy, Sara Aagesen, has also explained that the Government expects the EU to finance in a “forceful” way the construction of this corridor since it is strategic for Europe and, therefore, susceptible to be included as a Project of Common Interest (PIC).

On December 9, a further step will be taken to specify the “technical detail to be able to evaluate and have the final figures of how much it will cost and how much the EU will finance and how much the parties,” added Aagesen.

DISCARDED THE ITALIAN ROUTE

Given France’s refusal to bet on the MidCat, which also generated great social rejection in that country for its environmental impact, an initial option that had been put on the table was to connect Barcelona with Livorno (Italy), also by submarine.

But that submarine tube would be “more extensive and expensive”, so it is logical to prioritize a more “agile and logical” option such as the BarMar: “The alternative was that it was Livorno, but it is very reasonable that it is Marseille”, Ribera has resolved.

SPANISH GOVERNMENT AND GENERALITAT, HAND IN HAND

The commitment to the BarMar also has a Catalan reading, and this is a project well seen by the Generalitat, since the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, has already shown all his “complicity and support”, as well as “willingness to collaborate” with the parties involved so that Catalonia is “an energy hub of hydrogen (green) in Europe”.

The same has not happened with other renowned projects such as the failed expansion of El Prat Airport or the eternal controversy around the Rodalies service. Proof of the good harmony between governments in this matter is that Ribera, as she explained, informed Aragonès of the agreement before it was made public.

Source: Navarra News