The undersea gas pipeline providing the connection involves two sections: Denia to San Antoni de Portmany, (20" diameter, 123 km in length, maximum pressure of 220 bar and maximum depth of 995 m) and San Antoni de Portmany to San Juan de Dios (146 kilometres in length and the same diameter).

The connection of the Spanish mainland takes place at Playa de Denia (Valencia) by means of the 68 km Montesa-Denia gas pipeline, which began operations in July 2009.

List of the main projects to improve the transmission system implemented in 2009.

• Lemona-Haro pipeline (Enagas)
• Expansion of the Haro compression station (Enagas)

• Montesa-Denia pipeline (Enagas)
• Denia-Ibiza-Majorca undersea pipeline (Enagas)
• San Juan de Dios-Ca’s Tresorer Island pipeline on Majorca (Endesa)
• Ca’s Tresorer-Son Reus Island pipeline on Majorca (Endesa)

• Lorca gas connection pipeline (Enagas)
• Almería-Chinchilla gas pipeline: Almería-Lorca section (Enagas)
• Almería-Chinchilla gas pipeline: Lorca-Chinchilla section (Enagas)

• Navarre compression station (Enagas)
• Vergara-Irún gas pipeline (duplicaction). Phase II: Vergara-Zaldivia-Villabona (Naturgas)

• Redoubling of the branch to the Campo de Gibraltar. Phase III (Enagas)
• Zaragoza-Calatayud pipeline (Endesa)
• Branch to Castellón (Enagas)

• Sagunto Terminal. Operational start-up of the third LNG tank (SAGGAS)
• Barcelona Terminal. Expansion of output capacity to 1,950,000 m3(n)/h. (Enagas)
• Adaptation of the Cartagena plant terminal for vessels of up to 250,000 m3. (Enagas)

One further noteworthy event in 2009 was the operational start-up by Naturgas Energía Transporte of the gas transmission pipeline between the towns of Zaldibia and Villabona, in Guipúzcoa province. This infrastructure project (25.4 km; 72 bar supply pressure and an investment of €20 M) represents the second phase of the Euskadour Project, connecting the BBG regasification plant in Ziérbana (on the outskirts of Bilbao) with the French gas system, via Irún, and ultimately as far as a French underground storage facility in Lusaagnet.

The company also completed in 2009 a gas pipeline in the industrial zone of Hernani and began construction on Phase III of the Vergara-Irún gas pipeline, between Villabona and Irún, with work scheduled for completion in 2010.

Naturgas Energía Transporte in 2009 completed the Serinyá-Figueras (22.8 Km) secondary transmission pipeline, in the province of Girona. This initiative brought piped gas to the town of Figueras and allowed for the dismantling of the LNG satellite plant which had been serving the town, one of Spain's pioneering facilities.

The fourth quarter of 2009 saw completion of the process of integration of the company Septentrional de Gas, already 100% owned by Naturgas Energía.

On the last day of 2009 Gas Natural Murcia and Gas Natural Cantabria were acquired by Naturgas Energía Distribución. This sale by the Gas Natural Group was subject to the conditions of the National Competition Commission, following the acquisition of Unión Fenosa. The transaction consolidates the position of the Naturgas Group as the second-largest natural gas distributor on the Spanish market, having now surpassed the level of 700,000 points of gas supply, in eight different autonomous regions.

The purchase by Enagás from BP of the 25% stake which it held in the Bahía de Bizkaia Gas (BBG) offloading and regasification plant was announced in early September. The BBG plant has a total storage capacity of 300,000 m3 of LNG, and an output capacity of 800,000 Nm3/h.

Enagás has taken up a stake in BBG as a strategic partner which will be contributing its experience in the gas sector to cooperate on and underpin the expansion and future development of the regasification plant located in Ziérbena, near Bilbao.

The BBG offloading and regasification terminal referred to above received a total of 7.2 million cubic metres of LNG during 2009, on board 59 methane tankers, one of these, the Mozah, having a capacity of 266,000 m3.

Naturgas was involved together with Enagás, TIGF and GRTGaz (and the Spanish and French regulators) in conducting the Open Season for the commercial sale and definition of the new potential capacity for the international connections with France, with a view to 2013.

In May 2009 the third LNG tank entered operation at the Sagunto Regasification Plant (SAGGAS), with a capacity of 150,000 m3. Thanks to the addition of this tank, the plant now has a storage capacity of 450,000 m3.

In June 2009 construction work began on the fourth storage tank at the plant.

Regasificadora del Noroeste, REGANOSA, focused its efforts during 2009 on optimising its personnel and infrastructure capacity. In January 2009 the company held a tender to contract the services and activities required for expansion of regasification capacity at the Mugardos plant up to 825,000 Nm3/h.

Construction was completed on a metering station at Pastoriza-Arteixo, Coruña, allowing the Repsol refinery to be supplied with gas. Mention should also be made of the fact that in March 2009 the supplies to the Meirama coal-fired power station began, with three power plants now tied to the terminal.

Gas Natural was involved in a broad spectrum of activities last year. As a corporation, its most significant action was the completion of the takeover of Unión Fenosa, making the new company one of Europe's leading utilities firms. It has operations in 10 countries in the Americas. According to the Platts Top 250 rankings, Gas Natural has become the world's leading company in the natural gas sector (according to financial results), and is Europe's 26th-ranked energy company.

Gas Natural received an international award for its communications strategy for the merger with Unión Fenosa.

Below is listed a specific selection of actions taken:

• Start-up in late April of a new gas pipeline in Valencia which will supply natural gas to 35 boroughs in the district of La Safor and La Vall d’Albaida.
• Presentation of an expansion plan in the natural gas vehicles (NGV) market, at the NGV 2009 Congress organised by the European sectoral association, NGVA Europe, in June.

• Gas Natural presented at the Feria Genera and Barcelona Meeting Point new energy solutions to meet heating needs. The main new feature is a gas heat pump for central installations, producing heat and cold by means of natural gas, thereby reducing energy consumption compared with a traditional heat pump.
• In early May the first delivery of LNG to Electricité de France (EDF) took place at the regasification plant in Montoir-de-Bretagne, on the French Atlantic coast.
• Gas Natural agreed the sale of its 5% stake in Enagás to the company Oman Oil and the sale of the distribution systems and gas contract portfolio in Murcia and Cantabria to the EDP Group. These operations are in line with the ruling of the National Competition Commission, which authorised the Gas Natural acquisition in February 2009, subject to conditions.
• In August authorisation was received to operate on the Belgian gas market, making it the first Spanish company to form part of the Zeebrugge gas hub. It could, in fact, operate via Belgium on gas markets in other European countries.
• One further key development abroad was that in spring 2009 the figure of 400,000 distribution customers was reached in Italy, where the company has a network of close on 6000 km. Gas Natural has customers in 187 boroughs and 7 regions of Central and Southern Italy.

Iberdrola S.A. is engaged, in the field of natural gas commercial operations, supply, logistics, trading and the supply of end customers.  In 2009 supplies amounted to 5.8 bcm. During the year almost 100 shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) were handled, shipped by methane tankers before offloading at the terminals of Bilbao, Barcelona, Huelva, Cartagena and Sagunto. Gas was imported from Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt Qatar, Trinidad & Tobago, Libya and Norway.

On the domestic gas market, thanks to the commercial operations conducted the customer portfolio increased by almost 50%.

On the international market the company consolidated itself as one of the leading players in the LNG market, where it performed numerous operations to optimise its gas basket. It is actively involved in the natural gas markets in France, Germany, Austria and Portugal, along with the global LNG market.

Within the Spanish gas system, among the transmission facilities which are to enter service in 2010 we would highlight the following:

• Start of import flows along the MEDGAZ pipeline via Almeria.
• Redoubling of the Castellnou-Tivissa gas pipeline.
• 5th tank at the plant in Cartagena (150,000 m3).
• 7th tank at the plant in Barcelona (150,000 m3).
• 5th tank at the plant in Huelva (150,000 m3).
• Expansion of output at the Sagunto-SAGGAS terminal, from 1 million to 1.2 million  m3(n)/h.
• Denia compression station.
• Chinchilla compression station.