Spain delays gas supplies as 96% of its tanks are full

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By completely occupying Ukraine, the European Union began maneuvering to cut its massive dependence on Russian gas and ensure energy supply security for the winter. Brussels has proposed creating a shield to protect themselves from Vladimir Putin’s pulse, and the measures include: obligation of member states to gradually fill their gas tanks to ensure supply in the event of a sudden outage.

The plan, devised by Brussels, stipulated that each country should arrive with more than 80% of its capacity by November 1 and more than 90% of gas tanks from next year to 2026. The set targets have been largely exceeded. Warehouses across the EU are now on average 94.6% full, and some European powers like Germany or France are about to fill up in the face of the arrival of cold weather and increased gas consumption.

Spain is among the countries that are above the continental average. LThree underground tanks in Spain already store gas equivalent to 96.6% Its total capacity exceeds 34,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) stored, according to the records of Enagás, the operator of the Spanish gas system, which updates this data daily.

Temporary suspension of auctions

The government and the energy sector as a whole agree that having the gas system this saturation level isn’t a problem, it’s a blessing. However, reaching this exceptional state of high filling of the tanks may cause some dysfunctions in the normal functioning of the Spanish gas system, forcing further reorganization of the gas intake, waiting for low winter temperatures to increase consumption.

In the energy sector, system saturation is considered a boon, not a problem.

In the first ten days of November, Enagás paralyzed tenders between energy companies for the gas-carrying grid to be stored in underground storage. this The gas manager has already reopened tenders to inject gas after complaints from energy companies. those whose storage capacity is contracted but cannot transfer the gas to the tanks and cause interruptions in their accounts due to withholding tax.

Enagás has recently resumed bidding with a system of small daily auctions to inject very small quantities (just one gigawatt per day) of gas, but this is giving respite to marketers who already have contracted space to urgently need to store the product. in tanks as confirmed by EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA from the Prensa Ibérica group by various sources in the energy sector. Several trading companies had submitted complaints about the suspension of auctions to both Enagás and the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

Ship evacuations postponed

In addition to the underground storage, the Spanish gas system also includes six operating regasification plants with the possibility of additional storage. those tanks plants are currently at 80% of their capacity and just over 18,000 GWh, According to Enagás data.

Since mid-October, the sysadmin has enabled “zero level exceptional working status”. postponement of some methane tanker discharges at regasification plants if needed due to high occupancy.

Delays in deliveries occur if the operator does not commit to full capacity and does not exceed levels deemed sufficient for the filling to operate in full safety, as stated in the system operating notes periodically published by Enagás. In addition, the manager can refuse flexibility requests to increase the amount of gas discharged and provides convenience to companies that want to give up some of the delivery slots in the loads.

guaranteed supply

He stressed that Spain has an “extraordinary” underground warehouse. Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri, CEO of Enagás. At a conference organized by the newspaper El País, he predicted, “We will be able to pass the winter without serious supply problems.”

Enagás’ senior executive praised the importance of Spanish gas infrastructure to bring “peace to Europe” and said that Spain has concentrated 34% of all of Europe’s regasification capacity and 44% of liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage capacity. praised. a person arriving by boat. If Russia’s aim is to bring Europe to its knees with gas blackmail this winter, it has neither succeeded nor will.

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