Since the Russian military invasion of Ukraine began at the end of February, Spain increased gas sales France to record levels. In the last five months, exports to France via the two business gas pipelines have reached maximum levels. Now there is a commercial turnaround amid the struggle between the governments of Pedro Sánchez and Emmanuel Macron to restart the construction of the MidCat as a third interconnect to further boost Spain’s exports to Europe.
Spain broke the trend since the beginning of the war in August and increased its gas purchases from France until it became a net importer again. Spanish companies have doubled their gas purchases from France via gas pipelines, and although sales have also increased, the trade balance between the two countries has exceeded the 3,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) positive balance for Spain, according to official records, which is more than double what it was a year ago. more. From Enagás, the operator of the gas system in Spain and the manager of the large network of gas pipelines.
Two interconnections between Spain and France (the Larrau-Alçay and Irún-Biriatou gas pipelines) traditionally run in a north-south direction, supplying gas from France to Spain. In recent months, amid an energy crisis exacerbated by Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, the tide had turned. So far: When Spain’s usual buying flow returns in August. In fact, so far this year Spain has achieved an export balance of 13,000 GWh with France, compared to the import balance of 6,700 GWh recorded in the same period last year.
crash by midcat
Spain and Germany have been trying for months to revive a project to build a new gas pipeline across the Pyrenees to carry gas from Russia to Central and Northern Europe to move towards European energy independence, but they are faced with rejection. French government. French president Emmanuel Macron, among other things, justified his refusal that it is not necessary to expand the interconnection between the two countries when the existing ones are still underutilized.
It was noted from Enagás that at various times in recent months, gas pipelines have been exporting to France at their maximum capacity. From the start of the war in Ukraine and until last week, 75% of the balance with France was exporters for the Spanish market, and about 20% of the days interconnections started working at maximum capacity.
Gas tanks, 86%
It was pointed out that one of the reasons for the increase in gas purchases from the Spanish energy sector from France is the need to take advantage of the summer season to continue to increase the tank filling as required by Brussels. Spain is doing its homework and already exceeding the storage levels set by the EU.
The Community plan plans to reach 80% of capacity in each country’s gas tanks by 1 November, a target that has already been met in most community countries.. Three Spanish underground tanks currently store gas equivalent to more than 86.6% of their total capacity. Up to almost 30,500 GWh was stored, according to updated data from Enagás. According to the records of the European Commission, France is one of the countries that increased its reserves the most and filled approximately 94% of its storage capacity.
In addition to underground tanks, the Spanish gas system is also six operational regasification plants with additional storage (Thanks to Spain concentrating 34% of all of Europe’s regasification capacity and 44% of liquefied natural gas storage capacity). The six facilities currently store more than 17,300 GWh of gas, or 76% of their capacity. In a few months, the storage capacity of the Asturian El Musel facility will be added, which will not be connected to the Spanish gas pipeline network but will function as a warehouse.
More purchases from Russia
Spain continues to receive Russian gas since the military occupation of Ukraine began. Spanish companies have continued their purchases over the past six months and even stepped up their purchases in the summer, although volumes are much lower than those European countries with gas pipeline connections to Russia have purchased so far.
In August, Spain more than doubled its Russian gas purchases to 4,500 GWh, concentrating almost 12% of all gas. It is pointed out that the increase in gas purchases from the government and the energy sector itself, from Russia last month, is a temporary phenomenon, as a result of the conclusion of long-ago contracts to fill the warehouses in the summer months, and that this cannot be done easily. Methane tankers have also had various reversals due to maintenance work at various regasification plants in Europe.
Spain has become the third-largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipped from Russia since the start of the war, after only France and Belgium. However, according to data published by the Energy and Clean Air Research Center (CREA), during the summer months, in July and August, Spain was the world’s largest buyer of Russian ship-borne gas. bought it for 750 million euros in two months.
Last month, the USA was the largest gas supplier to the Spanish market, with 26.5% of total imports; followed by Algeria (24%), Nigeria (15.3%) and France itself (12.3%).