GAS NATURAL FENOSA and the Algerian company, Sociéte Nationale pour la Recherche, la Production, le Transport, la Transformation et la Commercialisation des Hydrocarbures, S.p.A (Sonatrach), signed an agreement for the purchase from the latter of a 10% shareholding in Medgaz, S.A. (and 10% of shareholders loan) for 61.9 million euros.
Medgaz is the company which owns the property and operates the Algeria- Europe underwater gas pipeline connecting Beni Saf with the Almeria coast, with a 8 bcm per annum capacity.
The acquisition of this shareholding is associated to the transfer to GAS NATURAL FENOSA of 10% of the gas pipeline’s transport capacity. This capacity will be used for a new supply contract of 0.8 bcm per year. The supply contract lasts for 18 years and deliveries will begin in the coming month of February.
With this agreement, GAS NATURAL FENOSA continues to strengthen its gas supplies and to consolidate its relationship with the Algerian company, with whom it has already signed long-term gas supply contracts for a total of 9 bcm of gas, transported to Spain through Morocco and the Straits of Gibraltar by means of the Maghreb- Europe gas pipeline, of which it is the majority shareholder.
The new supply contract and the purchase of 10% of Medgaz by the Spanish energy multinational is part of the set of agreements reached between the company and Sonatrach in June 2011, which permitted the groundwork to be laid for a stronger collaboration between both companies and their respective groups.
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, January 09, 2013; Image: Gas Natural Fenosa