The ministry said it had chosen the route furthest from the reserve and specified strict criteria for digging the underwater trench that brings the pipeline ashore, to minimize its impact on marine life.
The Medgaz pipeline, being built by a consortium led by Algerian state energy company Sonatrach and Total’s Spanish oil and gas firm Cepsa, is due to start bringing gas to Spain in 2009, and failure to obtain environmental clearance would have delayed the $806-million project considerably. Cabo de Gata is a semi-arid region, whose salt pans are home to many rare birds and which has extensive prairies of oceanic Posidonia, a protected seagrass.