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Business English
Once the pipelines are operational, Sonatrach, Algeria's state-owned oil and gas company, will for the
first time start marketing gas in southern Europe rather than just supplying it. That will put it in direct
competition with local suppliers such as Spain's Gas Natural.
Italy has not placed any obstacles to Sonatrach's entry into its domestic gas market. But in Spain, gas
distributors have tried - and failed - to keep the Algerian company off their home turf=eigener Platz,
heimischer Boden##.
The dispute has soured diplomatic relations between the two countries and was resolved in Algeria's
favour only when Sonatrach threatened to cancel the Medgaz pipeline project to Spain. Last year,
Spain imported 37 per cent of its gas from Algeria.
Disagreements between Madrid and Algiers have multiplied - in addition to the marketing spat, Algeria
caused bad blood by cancelling the contracts of two Spanish companies for a gas development project
last September. Sonatrach and Gas Natural, Spain's largest gas importer, are also locked in a price
dispute that could affect long-term supplies.
The Spanish government does not share the alarm of those companies. One senior diplomat said:
"Algeria is a reliable partner. I don't think you will ever see Algiers using energy as a geopolitical
weapon or threatening to cut off supplies to whole countries in the way Gazprom has done."
Independent analysts also think Sonatrach's participation in the Spanish
market will be a good thing. "Allowing Sonatrach to distribute gas in Spain
will not diminish Spain's energy security as it will reduce the logic for
politically motivated supply cuts," said Paul Isbell, an energy analyst at the
Real Instituto Elcano, a foreign policy think-tank in Madrid.
But Mr Khelil thinks dominant gas companies such as Gas Natural are deliberately fanning such fears.
"Companies don't want to lose their dominant positions in the market," he said. "The whole strategy is
to keep us out of the market in Spain."
Mr Khelil also said the expulsion of Repsol and Gas Natural, two Spanish energy groups, from the
Gassi Touil project last year was because of cost overruns and delays. It was not a nationalist move or
http://www.ftd.de/karriere_management/business_english/363328.html?mode=print 10/06/2008
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Gas Natural does not like the fact that Sonatrach will be Medgaz's operator and major shareholder. It is
even less thrilled by the fact that Sonatrach has been licensed as a distributor in Spain. The company
believes its price dispute with Sonatrach is linked to the imminent arrival of the second pipeline.
"The more Gas Natural pays for gas, the more Sonatrach will earn from its second pipeline," it said.
"That is Sonatrach's hidden agenda. Its entry into the Spanish distribution market marks another
extension of the power of energy-producing countries."
The Spanish company acknowledged it was getting its Algerian gas on favourable terms, but it was
resisting any price increase because paying more will increase Sonatrach's profits when it starts
operating as a distributor.
http://www.ftd.de/karriere_management/business_english/363328.html?mode=print 10/06/2008