Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline: the reason for its closure finally revealed

While the Algerian authorities had mentioned political tensions with Morocco in 2021 to justify the closure of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline (GME) crossing the kingdom, a former senior Algerian official has just stated that this decision had rather been motivated by the unprofitability of this gas pipeline.

Algeria shut down the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline (GME) through Morocco in August 2021, through which it supplied gas to Spain. At the time, Algerian authorities cited political motives, including hostile acts by Morocco, to justify the decision. However, a former senior official at the Algerian state-owned company Sonatrach, which was in charge of managing the pipeline, told The objective that the reason for this decision was not political, but rather economic, assuring that the GME “was no longer profitable.”