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Spain’s December gas imports up 14.4%, supported by LNG shipments

Spain’s natural gas imports in December rose 14.4% from a year earlier led by a jump in liquefied natural gas (LNG) buying, government data showed on Wednesday.

Spain imported 38,572 gigawatt hours (GWh) of natural gas in December, the data from Cores, an arm of the Energy and Environment Ministry, showed. In 2021 net gas imports increased 8.1 % compared with the prior year.

Europe’s gas imports and reserves have gained prominence in recent months as tensions with Russia have increased, exacerbating a supply crunch that has driven up power prices to record highs.

“Forecasts tell us that over the next few months electricity prices will continue to rise” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in an interview with online newspaper Eldiario.es, pointing to gas tensions as the reason driving the high energy costs.

In December, Russian gas accounted for just under 11% of Spanish imports, according to Cores data. Algeria continued to be the main supplier with 26.9% of the imports even after the north African country in November shut down a pipeline that feeds natural gas into Spain via Morocco.

Spanish LNG shipments jumped by 58.7% to account for more than two thirds of the imports while piped imports fell by 33.8%.

Earlier this month, the global head of controlling at power and gas group Naturgy NTGY.MC said it was unclear whether Spain’s LNG import capacity could be used to help manage any shortfall in European gas if Russia were to halt supplies.

Spain operates six of the regasification plants needed to take delivery of liquefied natural gas and return it to a form that can be used as fuel, more than any other European country.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Aida Pelaez Fernandez; editing by Nathan Allen and Louise Heavens)

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