Spain’s historic success its full gas tanks. Energy companies took advantage of the summer season to accelerate the filling of warehouses as part of the European shield against Russia for the coming winter, and managed to fill 100 percent of their capacity. Enagás, manager of the Spanish gas system, and published by the gas infrastructure association GIE, along with other European operators.
This European Union requires member states to increase their reserves As part of a community strategy to cut its massive continental dependence on Russian gas amid the invasion of Ukraine, to ensure supply and mitigate the risk of a new price spiral to the economy. Spain became the first member state to fully fill its warehouses, after reaching the goal of exceeding the mandatory occupancy rate of 90% capacity six months in advance by 1 November.
Gas injection into the tank hasn’t stopped its growth in recent months, until it surpasses 34,100 gigawatts (GWh) this week. deposit equivalents. This accumulated volume is now roughly the same in absolute terms as the Spanish gas system reached in November last year, but back then the occupancy percentage was officially lower than it is today.
This is because the maximum national underground storage capacity, which the Ministry of Ecological Transition updates every year, is slightly lower this year compared to the previous year. While the total capacity was 35,342 GWh in 2022, 34,179 GWh was interrupted for this year due to different technical adjustments (for example maintenance tasks, temporary unavailability or merging of wells).
full operability
Last year, in November, with 96.64% of warehouses, Enagás went so far as to order the delay of some gas entries into the system. The operator has suspended tenders for a few days to inject gas into the underground storage tanks and has activated a preventive mechanism to delay ship evacuation if necessary due to high occupancy at the regasification plants. This year, none of these protection systems were activated and gas inputs were not stopped, the injection activity has been fully operational in recent months.
In addition to three underground warehouses, Spain has extensive regasification plants (concentrating one-third of all regasification capacity in the EU) and currently fill 69% of their capacity, With 17,300 GWh, according to official Enagás documents. The capacity of the park, consisting of seven regasification plants on the Spanish market, was expanded a few weeks ago when the El Musel plant in Asturias became operational as a logistics storage centre.