A Clean energy for Almería, Spain and Europe
Marcos Tuite, MEDGAZ General Manager
Almería, 12/11/2013
Natural gas is one of the essential sources for providing energy in the Word. It is one of the cleanest, safest and most useful of all energy sources. Natural gas is a mix of gaseous hydrocarbons, mainly methane. It may include small proportions of ethane, propane and butane. It is a colorless, odorless gas.
As a fossil energy, it comes essentially from the remains of plants, animals and microorganisms that lived on earth millions of years ago. There are different theories about its origin. The most widely accepted indicates that it originated when these remains of organic matter were compressed underground under very high pressures and for a long time.
Unlike other fossil fuels such as coal and oil, natural gas produces clean combustion and emits lower levels of potentially polluting gases into the atmosphere. The products of the combustion of natural gas are essentially carbon dioxide and water vapor, the same products that we exhale when breathing.
Natural gas is therefore the cleanest fossil energy, and its use helps to reduce the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere and reduce the greenhouse effect in relation to other energies. The current volume is estimated at about 180 billion cubic meters, enough to supply the world for more than 65 years.
If in the sixties natural gas still did not have the relevance it has subsequently acquired, today it accounts for a quarter of the primary energy used in Europe. It is no longer the energy of the future, but the energy of the present. It is the cleanest and most efficient hydrocarbon with a wide range of uses, both domestic (cooking, hot water and heating) and industrial (cogeneration, steam production, furnace heating, smelting, drying, and heating) and is big part in the power generation (Combine cycle plants).
Spain, and also how not Almeria, supplies the lack of national raw material with its position more than privileged between the European market and the deposits of the Maghreb. We are the closest point with Algeria.
The construction has aimed to directly link the Algerian gas fields with Spain. It is the shortest, direct, safe and economical way of supplying to southern Europe. At present, the natural gas that carries MEDGAZ already represents 25% of the one that is distributed in our country.
In this line, Almeria by its geographical location is a strategic enclave, being one of the few provinces that did not have direct access to the natural gas. MEDGAZ does not sell or own this hydrocarbon; our mission is to transport Algerian gas from Algeria to its entry in Spain in the most efficient and economical way as possible, being here in the Perdigal Beach where it is delivered to the national transport manager.
This location gives Almeria a great opportunity, being the region of Marble the fist that will benefit from the proximity of this infrastructure.
Innovation in Engineering
The construction of MEDGAZ has been an innovation in engineering, as it is the first Mediterranean submarine gas pipeline built at more than 2,000 meters depth, specifically 2,160 meters. Its length is 201 km. To perform this infrastructure some of the best companies in this sector in the world have participate. In the same way, MEDGAZ contributes to maintain a reasonable balance between natural gas by pipeline (GN) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MEDGAZ connected its gas pipeline to the Spanish gas system on March 5, 2011 and began commercial operations on April 1. The expected technical life of the pipeline exceeds 50 years, reason why it is planned to cover the demands of natural gas in the long term.