France and Spain prepare to build an underwater hydrogen pipeline
Three gas transport operators from Spain and France announced on Thursday (3) the creation of the joint company BarMar, which will manage the construction of a future underwater hydrogen pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille.
The infrastructure will be part of the European H2Med project, which aims to connect the hydrogen networks of the Iberian Peninsula with Germany and northwestern Europe “to supply the continent with green hydrogen at affordable prices,” explains H2Med on its website.
BarMar’s shareholding is 50% Spanish (EIH-Enagas, the Spanish natural gas transmission operator) and 50% French, with 33.3% held by NaTran – responsible for gas infrastructure in most of France – and 16.7% by Teréga, the gas network operator in the southwest of the country, the three companies said in a joint press release.
The new company will be headquartered in France, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and will be managed by Francisco Pablo de la Flor, who comes from Enagas.
The hydrogen pipeline project between southern and northern Europe, highly valued by the Germans to accelerate the decarbonization of their industry, involves a 650-kilometer pipeline with the capacity to transport up to 2 million tons of hydrogen per year. It is scheduled to be operational by the “early 2030s”.
BarMar is one of the key pieces of the initiative: a 400-kilometer underwater hydrogen pipeline at a depth of up to 120 meters, with an estimated budget of 2.1 billion euros (R$13.5 billion, at the current exchange rate).
Its development is financed 50% by European funds, which also cover another hydrogen corridor project: CelZa, 248 kilometers long, which will connect Spain and Portugal.
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