Spain continues to fire Purchasing natural gas from Russia despite the war. Spain’s Russian gas imports It grew by 35 percent last yearAccording to Enagás records, Russia received more than 18% of total purchases, cementing its position as the country’s third largest gas supplier, behind only Algeria and the United States. Spanish gas system.
The Spanish Government is pressuring the energy companies responsible for gas imports from Russia to reduce purchases and not sign new supply contracts, but it is unsuccessful. But since the Administrator does not have the legal tools to prevent this, he resigns and assumes: Companies will be able to continue to buy Russian gas in the quantities they determine freely, because the European Union did not veto its imports as part of economic sanctions imposed on the Kremlin over the invasion of Ukraine.
“Decisions regarding foreign trade need to be taken within the framework of the EU. “There was no decision by the European Council to include gas imports from Russia among the prohibited and sanctioned activities,” he explains. Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera.
Considering this situation, it is not possible for the Government to take measures to prevent liquefied natural gas (LNG) transported by ships from entering the country. “At this stage, [la compra de gas ruso] It is a liberalized activity. This cannot be prevented if member states do not have the possibility of imposing sanctions. Although we believe it would be desirable if this were not the case,” the vice president summarizes. The Spanish Government stated that “there is no legal basis for making a decision” on this issue.
A few months ago, Ribera sent a letter to major Spanish gas operators demanding that they stop purchasing Russian gas and not sign new supply contracts. Russian gas relies on Spanish imports, a significant portion of which is then resold to other countries.
No EU veto
The European Union has launched several sanctions packages against Russia to strangle Vladimir Putin’s government economically and cut off its means of financing the war in Ukraine. Among the many punitive measures, blocking Russian gas purchases is not included. And after almost two years of war ESpain becomes a major buyer of Russian gas We buy it by ship and then re-export it to other countries.
In the energy sector, different conditions are put forward to explain the constant increase in purchases from Russia. The companies argue that the imports partly respond to long-term contracts signed long before the invasion that cannot be terminated without exposing themselves to million-dollar sanctions. However, considering the magnitude of the import increase in the last year, it is assumed that new contracts have been signed.
with network gas pipelines At a stalemate between Russia and Europe, Spain has become a priority destination for the distribution of Russian gas by ship, thanks to its massive park of regasification plants (concentrating a third of the EU’s capacity), which it then resells to other countries. In fact, last year the country that sold the most gas in the world and did not produce it was Spain.