A new gas pipeline between Spain and France may be ready within eight or nine months, according to Spanish energy minister Teresa Ribera.
With Russia threatening to pull its gas from Europe, attention has moved to other solutions. The new pipeline is set to potentially ease the situation, governments said.
"This new interconnection, this gas pipeline could be operating in about 8 or 9 months on the southern border side, that is, from the Pyrenean to Spain," Ribera said in an interview with national station TVE.
Launched in 2003, the pipeline was originally designed to transport gas from Algeria to Spain through Europe, but after several years of work, the project was abandoned in 2019 due to concerns about its environmental impact and profitability.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz also recalled a project from the past that he regrets not realising, as he spoke at a press conference on Thursday about a proposed gas pipeline that would pass through Portugal and Spain before reaching Germany via France.
"I have been very busy thinking about a gas pipeline that unfortunately we have let pass us by," he told the media gathering. "The one that should have been built between Portugal, Spain, through France to central Europe"
Scholz suggested he needs to speak with his "colleagues in Spain and Portugal, with the French president, and the president of the European Commission, so that we tackle such a project".
This winter's gas supply is not guaranteed since the Russian state-owned gas supplier Gazprom recently reduced its flow to Germany to 20% of its normal capacity due to alleged turbine problems.