French, Spanish Ministers Discuss New Cross-border Energy Links

French, Spanish and Portuguese energy ministers have discussed plans for new power and gas infrastructure across the French-Spanish border, the French energy ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministers met with EU Climate and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete in Paris on Tuesday and launched a working group to boost energy networks in South-West Europe.

Spanish energy executives have long complained about France's reluctance to boost cross-border links and the European Commission has made better connections to the Iberian peninsula a top priority as this could reduce the continent's dependence on Russian gas.

The group will study a project for a new Franco-Spanish subsea power cable across the Bay of Biscay, west of the Pyrenees mountain range, which would nearly double current power exchange capacity to 5,000 megawatt.

This summer, grid operators RTE in France and Spain's Red Electrica plan to open a new underground high-voltage cable across the eastern Pyrenees that will double capacity to 2,800 MW.

The new working group, part of a European Union initiative , will also conduct a feasibility study about more cross-Pyrenees power lines and about the "MidCat" project to build a new gas pipeline across the eastern Pyrenees.

The existing cross-border gas pipelines, all in the western Pyrenees, will be boosted to 7 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year by the end of this year, from about 5.4 bcm, the French energy ministry said.

This will bring gas exchange capacity to 15 percent of French consumption and 20 percent of Spanish consumption.

Italian gas transport group Snam, which owns southern French gas transport group TIGF, has said it wants to build the new 8 bcm/year Midi-Catalonia (Midcat) interconnector but has not taken an investment decision yet.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq)