Extremadura Pipeline

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Extremadura Pipeline is a cancelled oil pipeline in Spain.

Location

The Extremadura Pipeline would have run from Balboa, Spain to Huelva, Spain.

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Project Details

• Operators: Iberdrola
• Owners: Iberdrola
• Parents: Iberdrola
• Current capacity:
• Length: 200 km / 124.3 mi
• Status: Cancelled
• Start Year:

Background

The Balboa refinery was a project pushed by the Extremadura regional governemnt (PSOE party) to build both an oil refinery in Los Santos de Maimona (Badajoz) and also the related infrastructure to distribute it, including a 200 km long oil pipeline that would go from the refinery to the Huelva port. The company which was going to build the refinery was Grupo Alfonso Gallardo. The refinery was aimed to be the biggest industrial project of Extremadura. It would have transported crude oil as well as petroleum-derivated products such as diesel oil, kerosene or coke. The project planning started in 2005 and was abandoned in 2012, after receiving a negative EIA. The project would have the ability to process 5,750,000 t/year of crude and other raw materials, and would generate 5,411,000 t/year of products.

The oil pipeline project was to cross Natural Parks, environmentally protected areas by EU legislation and important bird habitats. From 2005 onwards, several groups emerged opposing the project and a platform against the refinery was created. They wrote reports detailing the negative impacts and organized several protests against the refinery. They also published books and brought experts from different fields to run workshops and eventually mobilized thousands of people against the project. They made massive demonstrations, in which some activists were arrested. The Platform also brought the Regional government before the Highest Court of Justice for violating Constitutional rights. They won the court case in 2009. Most of the opposition was concerned with the severe environmental impact that the refinery would risk in Extremadura, primarily an agricultural areas. Portugal, which was also affected by the project, was also against it. In 2013 the project was not approved by the Spanish Ministry of Environment and was cancelled.