Spain managed to establish itself as a g.operated a global gas sales center The sector is experiencing a historical shock due to the energy crisis and the geopolitical earthquake caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. All of Europe started looking for new gas supplying countries to reduce dependence on Russian gas. major Spanish gas infrastructures They became a key element in securing continental supply, catapulting re-exports to historical highs.
Re-export of gas from Spain Last year, it increased by another 10% and reached a new record of 75,300 gigawatt hours. (GWh) equivalent, according to internal records of Enagás, the manager of the national gas system. This increase, which marks a new record in the resale of gas, comes after Spain managed to rapidly increase gas sales to other countries in 2022, almost doubling its re-export activity to exceed 68,200 GW, a growth of 91%.
Constant market turmoil caused by the need to guarantee supply amid geopolitical tension has caused the Spanish gas system to set a new record again this year. Spain makes the most of its extensive network of regasification plants —those who buy and send gas by ship— and, especially last year, gas pipeline connections with Europe to increase the resale of gas to other countries.
More gas pipelines, fewer ships
Gas companies operating in the Spanish market in 2023 concentrated 71% of all re-exports through gas pipelines. France, Portugal and Morocco, compared to the 63% weight they had last year. Cylinder sales to France increased rapidly 22,900 GWh, For Portugal, this figure tripled to 3,580 GWh, an increase of 66% compared to the previous year.
Although resale by ship from regasification plants was modest (up to 22,100 GWh, 10.8% less), Spain was the non-producing country that produced the most liquefied natural gas last year. (LNG carried on ships) It is re-exported from all over the world, as noted by Enagás, which manages almost all of these facilities in the Spanish market.
While the Kremlin cuts shipping gas through tube European countries began to look for other suppliers around the world as part of the cross-retaliation game against the war. For this, it must be transported by ship in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is transported in liquid and frozen form.
Benefits from Spain’s network six regasification plantsTo become a major European hub for the arrival and re-export of gas, concentrating 33% of the entire European Union’s regasification capacity and 44% of the continent’s LNG storage.
According to data managed by gas system operator Enagás, Spain will be able to export 8 billion 500 million cubic meters (8.5 billion cubic meters) of gas annually to the continent through two gas pipelines with France, following a capacity increase launched in November. New compressor in Irun, and currently has the capacity to ship another 4 billion cubic meters from regasification plants. However, if regasification plants are adjusted to maximum performance, almost another 10 billion cubic meters could be added. In addition, last year Enagás commissioned the Asturian El Musel facility for reuse as an export logistics warehouse; This represents a potential increase of another 8 bcm in Spain’s gas transport capacity to Europe.