Spanish LNG imports, reloads down in July

Jul 24, 2023

Spanish liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and reloads declined in July compared to the same month last year, according to Enagas.

LNG imports dropped by 22.4 percent to about 20.5 TWh in July and accounted for 64.7 percent of the total gas imports. In June LNG imports reached some 21.3 TWh.

Including pipeline imports from Algeria, France, and Portugal, gas imports to Spain reached about 31.7 TWh last month, a drop from some 36.7 TWh in July last year, Enagas said in its monthly report.

Moreover, national gas demand in July dropped by 15.9 percent year-on-year to 26.1 TWh.

Demand for power generation declined by 39.4 percent year-on-year to about 10.4 TWh last month, while conventional demand rose by 13 percent to 15.7 TWh, the LNG terminal operator said.

Enagas operates a large network of gas pipelines and has four LNG import plants in Barcelona, Huelva, Cartagena, and Gijon.

It also owns 50 percent of the BBG regasification plant in Bilbao and 72.5 percent of the Sagunto plant, while Reganosa operates the Mugardos plant.

Enagas recently received the commissioning cargo at its El Musel terminal in Gijon and awarded the logistics services contract to Endesa.

The seven operational Spanish LNG regasification terminals, including El Musel, unloaded 21 cargoes last month, 6 cargoes less when compared to July 2022, according to Enagas.

Russia was the biggest supplier of LNG to Spain for the third month in a row in July with 8.76 TWh, a rise from 5.31 TWh last year. Russian volumes accounted for 27.6 percent of all of the Spanish gas imports in July, the data shows.

US LNG volumes to Spain halved from about 8.53 TWh in July 2022 to 3.94 TWh last month.

The Point Fortin LNG plant in Trinidad and Tobago supplied some 2.71 TWh to Spain last month, up from 1.54 TWh in July 2022, while the Bonny LNG plant in Nigeria supplied some 2.67 TWh to Spain, down from 5.88 TWh last year.

Other LNG sources in July include Angola and Qatar, the data shows.

Spanish LNG terminals loaded about 0.38 TWh in July, down 57 percent compared to some 0.90 TWh in July 2022, and almost the same compared to 0.39 TWh in June.

The Barcelona LNG terminal reloaded about 0.21 TWh of LNG, followed by Huelva with about 0.10 TWh.

On the other hand, the number of truck loads at the LNG terminals rose by 21 percent year-on-year to 902, the data shows.

The Huelva LNG terminal completed 221 truck loads in July, followed by Barcelona with 170 truck loads, and Sagunto with 159 truck loads.