Spain doubles gas purchases from Russia in August

Special, Spain bought 4,505 gigawatt hours Russian natural gas (GWh) (GWh) in the eighth month of the year came in at 9,127 GWh from Algeria when 13,397 GWh was imported a year ago, compared to 2,228 GWh in August 2021.

United States of America (US) remains the main gas supplier with 10,074 GWhThis represents an annual increase of 92.22%. The increase in France, where 4,688 GWh of natural gas came, which is 95.5% more than the 2,398 GWh purchased from France in August 2021, is also noteworthy.

In addition, purchases from Nigeria fell 3.8% as 5,835 GWh of natural gas was purchased in August 2022 compared to 6,067 GWh in the same month of the previous year.

Total, In the eighth month of the year, Spain purchased 38,066 GWh of natural gas, an increase of 3.43% compared to the same period last year.

Regarding the relative weight of each country in Spain’s total natural gas imports in August, the USA remained the main supplier accounting for 26.5% of purchases, followed by Algeria (24%), Nigeria (15.3%), France followed. 12.3% and Russia (11.8%).

Of the total imports recorded in the month, 36.7% came from existing gas interconnections and 63.3% from methane tankers in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Purchases up nearly 14% through August

Spain’s natural gas purchases, which accumulated in the first eight months of the year, increased by 13.89% up to 301,498 GWh on an annual basis.

In this period, purchases from the USA accounted for 32.1% (96,683 GWh), 24.4% (73,662 GWh) of purchases from Algeria, 14.4% (43.467 GWh) of purchases from Nigeria and Russia. It accounted for 10.9% (32,770 GWh) of those made from.

In this way, Russian natural gas imports decreased from 10.1% in the first eight months of 2021 to 10.9% in the same period of this year.

Natural gas imports from the USA increased by 270.6% year-on-year to August, while purchases from Russia increased by 22.89% and from Nigeria by 53.8%.

Likewise, gas purchases from Algeria were reduced by 41.17%. The main reason for this decrease is the decrease in natural gas pipeline from 111,758 GWh in the first eight months of 2021 to 69,184 GWh by August 2022, a 38% reduction.

Export with France

Regarding exports via the VIP Pyrenees interconnection with France, it amounted to 1,597 GWh in August compared to 898 GWh in the same month of 2021.

Normally used to import natural gas from the neighboring country, since the war in Ukraine there has been a complete change that has made Spain an exporter to Europe. Already in April, an export figure of 5,618 GWh from Spain to France was reached, while in May it reached a record 6,185 GWh, increasing by 10% compared to the previous month.

However, this trend reversed in August and the balance returned to the importer position as Spain purchased 4,688 GWh from the Gaul country.

In August, the discharge of ships increased by 12.1% compared to the same month of the previous year and reached 24,097 GWh. However, the number of unloaded ships remained at 25, as in the same month of 2021.