Algeria behind the collapse of the UAE’s acquisition of “Naturgy” company

The failure of the Emirati company “Taqa” to acquire the Spanish company “Naturgy” was not the result of purely economic calculations, as much as it was related to a complex bone-breaking process that extended over a period of about two months, in which the Algerian party was present in its shadow, refusing to complete the deal because it was not Innocent from the beginning.
On Tuesday, June 11, 2024, the Emirati company “Taqa” announced the withdrawal of its attempts to acquire “Naturgy,” energy company and before that, the Spanish party announced on Monday, June 10, 2024, the cessation of negotiations between the Emiratis and the parties contributing to “Naturgy,” in a development that was expected given the The discouraging circumstances that accompanied the negotiations.
On its face, this acquisition process appears to be purely economic, but in reality it is an undeclared war by the United Arab Emirates against the supreme interests of Algeria. This fact, as is known, caused a special meeting of the Supreme Security Council to be held in Algeria, and it came out. With a statement that said: “The Supreme Security Council expressed its regret at the hostile actions recorded against Algeria, by a brotherly Arab country.” Everyone understood that the matter was related to the UAE, which in turn did not fail to respond through tweets by a senior official in its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called Anwar Gargache.
The assertion of the validity of this approach was not limited to Algeria and Abu Dhabi only, but also to Spain, the third party in the equation, whose relations with Algeria have been in a state of stagnation since Madrid decided to abandon its historical neutral position on the Sahrawi issue, by supporting the thesis of the Moroccan regime. Immediately after the Emirati company announced that it was embarking on the complete acquisition of the Spanish “Natogy”, the main partner of the Algerian company Sonatrach in supplying gas, the famous Spanish journalist, Ignacio Sambrero, published an article in the newspaper “El Confidential”, entitled: “Why is Abu Dhabi waging a war?” Diplomacy on Algeria, a natural and key partner to Spain?
In the article, Sombrero wrote, “This process requires the approval of Moncloa (the Government Palace) and the government cannot neglect the strategic interests that pass through Algeria in the field of energy, because Algeria is the main supplier of gas to Spain, and the executive authority cannot afford to break this balance.” “.
On the political level, the Vice President of the Spanish Government and Minister of Environmental Transformation and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, raised the banner of vigilance regarding the deal and subjecting it to oversight, while the spokesman for “SUMAR” (a political alliance participating in the government), Iñigo Errejón, asked the government to “use… He vetoed the potential acquisition of Naturgy by the Emirati company TAQA, and demanded the introduction of public capital into the Spanish energy company, just as happened with Telefonica to prevent Saudi Telecom Company from acquiring the majority of its shares, as he put it.
On the other hand, Algeria was not sleeping in the honeymoon, but rather was closely monitoring the draft deal, and while the negotiations between the Spanish and Emirati parties were at their height, the international news agency, Reuters, came out with resounding news that carried shocking and strict warnings from Algeria warning that the acquisition of “Taqa” According to “Naturgy”, it will push Algeria to take a decisive decision to stop the flow of gas towards Spain, which is the news that was a thunderbolt on the negotiators to make the deal a success.
This exciting development coincided with the leakage by Spanish sources of news that the Moroccan regime was coordinating with the Emirati authorities for the “Taqa” company to take control of “Naturgy”, and thus the possibility of Rabat obtaining Algerian gas in its gaseous form in the reverse direction through the Maghreb-European gas pipeline, which Algeria stopped working on it at the end of October 2021, which caused serious troubles for the Alawite kingdom, including the suspension of two power plants, Beni Mazhar and Tahadart, for a full eight months, due to the Moroccan regime not taking precautions in the event that Algeria cuts off gas to them.