The European Investment Bank announces a EUR 500 million loan to MEDGAZ for the construction of a gas pipeline between Algeria and Spain. The finance contract was signed this morning in Madrid by EIB Vice-President Philippe de Fontaine Vive, by M. Miro Roig, Chairman of the Medgaz Board of Directors and M. Vera Garcia, General Manager of Medgaz, in the presence of all the shareholders of Medgaz (Sonatrach, Iberdrola, CEPSA, Endesa, GDF Suez).

The financed project consists of transporting gas energy from Algeria to Spain over a length of 210 km. It comprises the construction and operation of a sub-sea gas transmission pipeline between Beni Saf in Algeria and a landfall close to Almeria in Spain, including a gas receiving terminal on the Spanish side, a compressor station at Beni Saf of initially 99 MW, a pipeline with a diameter of 24 inches, a capacity of 8 Gm³/a and short near-shore sections for a potential future second 24-inch sub-sea pipeline. The total project cost is estimated at EUR 1,009 M.

The project has a real added value in terms of energy supply, competitiveness and security. It will contribute concretely to :

• meeting growing gas demand in Spain by diversifying supplies;
• encouraging competitive operation of the internal market by making all the resulting import capacity available to competitors of the main market player of natural gas.
• reinforcing the security of EU energy supply.

Philippe de Fontaine Vive, EIB Vice-President and in charge of FEMIP – the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership – commented : “This pipeline symbolizes the undeniable link between the North and the South of the Mediterranean. Energy is a driver of economic growth for both borders, a breeding ground for innovative projects and jobs. It will undoubtedly be a keystone in making the Mediterranean a competitive region.”

It is important to underline that the energy challenge in the Mediterranean is an operational priority for the EIB, which between 2002 and 2009 provided energy financing totalling EUR 3.7bn in the Mediterranean, with flagship projects such as the Tillouguit hydropower plant and the Tangiers wind farm in Morocco, the Gabal el-Zait wind farm in Egypt, the Jordanian pipeline in Jordan, the Ghannouch power plant in Tunisia and the Deir Ali I and II projects in Syria.

Note to editors:

FEMIP, the key player in the financial partnership between Europe and the Mediterranean, providing more than EUR 10bn in finance between October 2002 and December 2009.      

The Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP) groups together all the instruments used by the European Investment Bank to carry out its activities in the Mediterranean partner countries. It has been operating since October 2002 and is today the key player in the economic and financial partnership between Europe and the Mediterranean, providing more than EUR 10bn in support of projects in the nine Mediterranean partner countries.

FEMIP attaches paramount importance to energy as key to sustainable development in the Mediterranean. Between 2002 and 2009, it provided financing totalling EUR 3.7bn to this sector in the Mediterranean, with the focus on:

• building and upgrading energy infrastructure in order to improve supplies for people in the Mediterranean region;
• strengthening regional energy interconnections and developing new energy routes;
• exploiting the region’s considerable renewable energy potential;
• optimising sustainable energy development in a way that meets environmental concerns.