Spain has long faced the reality that gas reserves are not immediately nearby. Energy companies have accelerated the filling of storage facilities as part of Europe’s defense against Russia for the coming winter, and they have already reached a high utilization level. Enagás, the administrator of the Spanish gas system, reports daily data showing a storage occupancy of 99.8 percent. This figure reflects a continuous effort across the sector to strengthen energy security for households and businesses in the region.
The European Union requires member states to bolster their gas reserves as a shared strategy to reduce continental reliance on Russian supplies amid the tensions arising from the war in Ukraine. The goal is to ensure steady supply and mitigate the risk of price spikes that could disrupt economies. Spain currently leads among member states by occupancy, having surpassed the 90 percent threshold aimed for the next 1 November, well in advance of that target for this year.
Gas injections continue to rise, with the storage system accumulating more than 34,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in deposits this week. Enagás anticipates filling the tanks to 100 percent of available capacity before the end of the injection campaign, which is slated to conclude later in October.
Those 34,000 GWh now stored are equal to the total reached in November of the previous year, although the official percentage then stood lower. The national underground storage capacity, updated annually by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, is slightly smaller this year. The total capacity was 35,342 GWh in 2022, while 34,179 GWh were set aside for this year due to technical adjustments such as maintenance, temporary unavailability, or consolidation of wells.
full operability
Last November, with storage at 96.64 percent, Enagás authorized delaying some gas injections into the system. The operator paused certain tenders to inject gas into underground storage and activated safeguards to slow gas evacuation from regasification plants if occupancy became too high. This year, those protections have not been invoked, and gas inputs have remained fully operational in recent months.
Beyond the three underground storage sites, Spain hosts an extensive regasification network that accounts for about one-third of the EU’s regasification capacity. The network currently operates at around 74 percent of its capacity, equating to about 18,450 GWh, according to Enagás documents. The storage park was expanded recently with the addition of the El Musel facility in Asturias, now serving as a logistics storage center and strengthening the nation’s gas handling capabilities.
rate reduction
With reserves nearing their capacity limits, the government is preparing a new wave of rate relief to help energy companies continue filling their tanks next year. A ministerial draft outlines an average discount of about 4.9 percent on various charges that operators pay to inject, store, or withdraw gas from underground facilities, effective from October 1 for twelve months and subject to a public consultation process. The aim is to ease compliance costs during the ongoing fill program.
The government is also taking steps to shield energy companies from certain underground storage charges until new national and EU obligations to increase gas reserves are fully in place. This partial relief would apply through March 2024 for additional gas injections intended to push above the 90 percent target. For other transactions, operators would still face current fees, with a plan to discount these charges from October this year through September of the following year, a period analysts refer to as the gas year.
The crisis response dates back to the early days of the Ukraine conflict when Spain ramped up its stock obligations to hedge against energy disruption. By late March of last year, gas traders were required to hold between 20 and 27.5 days of firm consumption, and new EU storage rules for 2024 pushed the target toward 90 percent of capacity with a reserve level above 30 days of consumption. These measures reflect ongoing efforts to secure electricity and gas supplies for the coming seasons and stabilize prices for consumers across Spain and neighboring markets.