Iberia waits on Europe's LNG sidelines

Spain and Portugal want to become a gateway for Europe’s LNG imports, but cheaper pipeline gas is a formidable competitor

Plans to position Iberia as a liquefied natural gas gateway for Europe hold promise of ending the peninsula's outlier status in the continent's energy markets while also boosting the continent's energy sovereignty. But the ambitions face regional competition, geographic realities and uncertainty over future European gas demand. At a trilateral summit in Lisbon last week, the leaders of France, Spain and Portugal spoke of the potential for new gas connections to both reduce Europe's reliance on energy imports and to end bottlenecks keeping the Iberian Peninsula isolated from core regional markets. "It is essential to develop transport, storage and import [gas] infrastructure that will allow