Underground storage remains at 100% and regasification plants have not dropped below 60% full.
MADRID, 6 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -
Imports of natural gas to Spain from Russia have fallen in September to minimum levels since the war broke out in Ukraine at the end of February last year, falling to 3,259 gigawatt hours (GW).
Specifically, liquefied natural gas (LNG) arrived from Russia in September barely represented 10.6% of the total supply to the country, thus becoming the fourth main source of natural gas consumed in Spain in the month, according to data from the last Enagás newsletter collected by Europa Press.
Thus, the September figures confirm the downward trend in the arrival of natural gas to Spain from Russian lands in recent months, after reaching a historical record in May, with 9,663 GWh.
It would be necessary to go back to February 2022, the month in which the war began in Ukraine, to find a lower level of arrival of Russian gas from Spain, when the figure stood at 2,174 GWh.
In the specific case of Spain, the majority of the natural gas that arrives from Russia comes from long-term contracts with Yamal LNG, a consortium led by the private Russian company Novatek and whose shareholders include European capital and capital from other countries. In any case, Russian natural gas has not been included in the vetoes adopted by the EU against the country after the start of the war in Ukraine.
However, for some time now the third vice president and Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, has been appealing to Spanish energy companies to diversify LNG supply sources and dispense with LNG from Russia.
Ribera even conveyed this suggestion in a letter sent to the energy companies and main Spanish natural gas marketers.
For its part, Algeria was once again the first country of origin of natural gas that arrived in Spain in September, covering 42.4% with a total of 13,063 GWh -8,009 GWh per tube and 5,054 GWh per methane tanker-, followed by Nigeria (20.1% with 6,195 GWh) and the United States (12.4% with 3,814 GWh).
In the cumulative total of the year, Algeria is also the first supplier of the Spanish gas system so far this year, with 26.8%, followed by the United States (20.0%) - a country that last year managed to star in a historic 'sorpasso' becoming Spain's main supplier in the midst of the crisis caused after the invasion of Ukraine.
Regarding the demand for natural gas in Spain, it fell 6.3% in September compared to the same month last year and has already accumulated a decrease of 13% so far this year.
Conventional demand - which includes industrial, commercial and domestic demand - grew by 31.4% compared to the same month of the previous year, and demand for electricity generation fell 36.1% compared to the same month of the previous year.
Regarding underground storage, the high filling rate continues, remaining at 100% in September and the regasification plants have not dropped below 60% filling.
Meanwhile, exports to France in the accumulated year between January and September reached 17,602 GWh, 53.2% more than in the same period of 2022.
