In mid-August, Spain reached a historic full capacity of gas tanks. Energy companies, taking advantage of the summer months as part of the EU’s strategy against Russia, accelerated the filling of three national underground reservoirs. Spanish reserves since then and have remained at 100% for five monthsUntil the end of November, a gradual decrease in the filling level began with the decrease in temperatures (this year is relatively milder than normal across the continent).
Last month alone, during December, Spain consumed 10% of the natural gas it had stored in its warehouses. Spain’s reserves fell below 90% for the first time in eight months this weekend; This is the first time since the Spanish gas system managed to reach this level at the beginning of May, well ahead of the demands set by the Union. . European.
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission and the Twenty-Seven have moved to create a shield to protect themselves against Vladimir Putin’s energy pulse. Among the measures implemented by the EU is the obligation of member states to fill gas tanks to guarantee supply.
The plan devised by Brussels this year required states to meet minimum reserve volumes at different times of the year, with the ultimate goal of their storages reaching 90% of their capacity by November 1. Spain reached this milestone six months early and then First European country to use 100% of warehouse capacity.
before the cold weather
Now, before the first cold wave came This winter is expected to increase in the coming days and gas consumption is expected to increase due to increased use of heating. Spain reduced its reserves below 90%, According to internal records of Enagás, the manager of the Spanish gas system, the equivalent of 30,660 gigawatt hours (GWh) of gas will be filled this Thursday, and these records have not yet been confirmed by the gas infrastructure association GIE, published together with the data. from the rest of the European operators.
In addition to three underground warehouses, Spain also has large tanks. network of regasification plants (concentrating a third of all regasification capacity in the EU) and according to official Enagás documents they have now reached 50% of their capacity at 12,700 GWh. The capacity of the park of seven regasification plants on the Spanish market was expanded last year with the commissioning of the El Musel plant in Asturias as a logistics storage centre.
Source: Informacion
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