Spain supplied Morocco with ‘record amounts’ of electricity this May, expected to last through June

Spain is reportedly supplying Morocco with record amounts of energy through the submarine highway under the Strait of Gibraltar. According to official figures compiled by Red Eléctrica (REE), Spain’s main electricity operator, similar amounts of energy flow from the Iberian country to Morocco were last recorded back in 2020. Back then, Spain exported more than 100,000 MWh to Morocco, obtaining a negative balance of nearly 38,000 MWh, figures far from the balance recorded in May 2021, when electricity sales to Rabat did not exceed 23,500 MWh and Spain closed the month with a positive balance of 58,200 MWh. In the months of August and December 2020, in the midst of the health crisis, exports from Spain exceeded 120,000 MWh, producing a negative balance for the country of more than 82,000 MWh. Since then, the flow of electricity back and forth across the Strait has maintained a certain balance, except at specific times, which most recently occurred this May, where an increase in Morocco’s demand was noted, resulting in the upturn in electricity imports from Morocco, according to Spanish outlet, La Informacion. According to the newspaper, Red Eléctrica’s forecasts for this June suggest that Spain will be a net exporter in its exchanges with Morocco. The estimates of the company suggest that 99.9% of the energy that has crossed the Strait of Gibraltar highway during the month of June will have done so in a north-south direction. This will leave a historical negative balance for Spain of more than 171,500 MWh. Algeria stopped supplying Spain with gas via Morocco, at the end of October, via the Maghreb-European gas pipeline, against the backdrop of the diplomatic crisis between the two countries over Western Sahara. Spain has since then decided to allow Morocco to reverse the pipeline, and gasify Morocco’s internationally purchased liquified gas. The upturn in Spanish electricity flows to Rabat is therefore occurring in the midst of hostilities between the Algerian Government and the Spanish government, derived from Moncloa’s support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara.