Medgaz

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This article or section contains information about a planned or expected pipeline. It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the pipeline approaches, and more information becomes available.

Medgaz is a planned submarine natural gas pipeline between Algeria and Spain. The pipeline will start from the Hassi R'mel field in Algeria and the first section will run to the port of Beni Saf. The offshore section will start from Beni Saf and the landfill site will be at the Perdigal Beach in the coast of Almería, Spain. It will be hooked up to the existing Almería-Albacete gas pipeline.

The length of Algerian onshore section is 547 kilometers and the offshore section will be around 200 kilometers. The initial capacity of 48-inches onshore and 24-inches offshore pipeline will be 8 bcm of natural gas annually. Total estimated costs of project are 1.1 billion euros, including 630 million euros for offshore section.

The preparation of Medgaz project started in 2001 by founding Medgaz pipeline company. The feasibility study carried out in 2002-2003. The construction is expected to start at the end of 2006 and the pipeline is expected to come operational in 2009.

The shareholders of Medgaz consortium:

• CEPSA (Spain) - 20%
• Sonatrach (Algeria)- 20%
• BP (UK) - 12%
• Endesa (Spain) - 12%
• Gaz de France (France) - 12%
• Iberdrola (Spain) - 12%
• Total (France) - 12%

According to the agreement between Sonatrach and Russian Gazprom, it's possible that Gazprom will be involved in the construction of Medgaz pipeline.

[edit] See also

• Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline
• Greenstream pipeline
• GALSI
• NIGAL pipeline

[edit] External links

• Medgaz official website
• L'alliance entre Gazprom et Sonatrach trouble l'Europe, Le Figaro 7 August 2006 (in French)