Algeria, Africa's biggest natural gas exporter, had been using the Gaz-Maghreb-Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...(GME) pipeline since 1996 to deliver several billion cubic meters (bcm) per year to Spain and Portugal.
But the GME contract is due to expire at the end of October, and Algiers decided not to renew it because of the diplomatic tensions with Rabat.
Experts had said the alternative undersea line, known as Medgaz, does not have the capacity to make up the shortfall. They earlier feared that supplies could be cut, just as energy prices soar in Europe ahead of winter.
Medgaz is already operating near its full capacity of eight bcm per year -- around half total Algerian gas exports to Spain.
Algeria's Minister of Energy and Mines Mohammed Arkab, speaking after talks with Spain's Minister for Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera, said his country, through state energy firm Sonatrach, "will honor its commitments to Spain", according to the official APS news agency.
"The Spanish partners were reassured that Algeria will provide all the supply expected. We equally commit ourselves to making all deliveries through Algerian installations, via the Medgaz pipeline and gas conversion complexes," Arkab said.
He spoke of extending capacity of the Medgaz line and an expansion of liquefied natural gas exports by sea.