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Open Season 2015
Open Season 2015
After three years of work carried out by French and Spanish regulators and transmission operators, procedures to develop and allocate new pipeline transport capacity between both countries (Open Season 2013 and 2015) will allow for a significant increase in gas interconnection capacity between Spain and France from 2013.
UNION FENOSA GAS
The second and final stage of the Open Season 2015 procedure ended on 16 July 2010. The results were:
- Once the capacity requested by commercial vendors is applied to the economic test in France to validate investment, capacity to transport 2 bcm/year in the Irún–Biriatou international connection can be developed, in the Spain–France direction, which will be available from 2015. Capacity has been allocated to three different commercial vendors over the whole corridor, from Spain to the North–GRTgaz area in France.
- The capacity requested by commercial vendors in the process was not sufficient to validate development of the MidCat project. This project aims to link the Spanish grid through Catalonia with the French grid, via the Midi-Pyrénées region.
- No capacity has been allocated in the direction from the North–GRTgaz area towards Spain.
The decision by French transmission operators regarding necessary investments to increase the Irún–Biriatou interconnection and approval of the decision by the French regulatory body CRE is expected at the beginning of 2011.
The Open Season 2013 proposed the Larrau interconnection development, which will provide transmission capacity of 5.5 bcm/year in both directions from 2013.
The obtained results will pave the way towards increasing gas export capacity via pipelines from Spain to France, reaching 7.5 bcm/year from 2015. This will represent 15% of the demand for natural gas in France and 18% of the demand for gas in Spain.
Annual Report 2.010: Sedigas - The Spanish Gas Association