LNG

Spain increased its imports of Russian liquefied natural gas in 2022 despite Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine and with only the UK out of leading European importers voluntarily ending LNG cargo deliveries from Russia and later joined by the Baltic nation of Lithuania.

Spain, France, the Netherlands have continued to receive LNG cargoes, which are not on the formal Western sanctions list.

The shipments to Spain and other European Union nations mostly come from the Yamal LNG export plant in northeast Siberia and operated by Russian natural gas company Novatek.

Latest Spanish data showed that 12.6 percent of Spanish natural gas was imported from Russia in the form of LNG and regasified to enter the state gas grid or re-exported to other EU nations.

With the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, energy supplies from Russia collapsed with oil accounting for just 1 percent of Spanish imports and with only LNG surviving as a seemingly essential Russian commodity.

Regarding LNG imports, the data showed that Spain received 56,021 gigawatt hours (GWh), or 4.24 million tonnes, of LNG from Russia in 2022, which was 54.8 percent more than in 2021 when it imported 37,027 GWh, or 2.80MT of LNG.

Rise in deliveries

As a consequence, Spain’s share of LNG shipments from the Russians increased by 3.7 percentage points in 2022 from 8.9 percent to 12.6 percent.

The data showed that Russia remained the fourth largest natural gas supplier to Spain after LNG deliveries from the US, pipeline natural gas from Algeria and LNG cargoes from Nigeria.

In the last month of 2022, Russian deliveries from the Yamal plant to northwest Spain and other Spanish ternminals surpassed LNG deliveries from Nigeria and consolidated itself in third place.

This meant that in the month of December, 5,453 GWh, or 414,400 tonnes, of LNG were received by Spain from Russia .

This increased the December cargo volumes of Russia’s LNG received by Spanish terminals to 14.3 percent of the total.

The LNG deliveries contrasted with the shipment of oil cargoes to Spanish refineries.

Russia exported 698,000 tons of crude oil to Spain in 2022, which was 72.8 percent less than in 2021 when 2.6 million tons were received.

In this case, Russia’s share of crude deliveries to Spain fell from 4.6 percent of the total to 1.1 percent.

After this collapse, Russia’s became Spain’s 17th largest oil supplier, down nine places from 2021.

Equinor, the Norwegian supplier of pipeline natural gas and LNG to Europe, has made its sixth discovery on the Norwegian shelf so far in 2021 and the success was shared by Polish Oil and Gas Company.

July 5 (LNGJ) – Russian and US cargoes are still pointing at Europe as the natural gas benchmark price, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), is at record 2021 levels for the Northern Hemisphere summer season. The 177,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Boris Vilkitsky” is expected to deliver a cargo on July 8 to the Montoir-de-Bretagne import terminal on the Atlantic Coast of France from the Yamal plant in northern Siberia operated by Novatek, according to shipping data.

   Among other cargoes for Europe, the 154,880 cubic metres capacity vessel “BW Pavilion Vanda” is scheduled to deliver a US shipment on July 19 to Poland’s import terminal at the Baltic port of Swinoujście from the Corpus Christi export plant in Texas. The cargoes were heading for Europe as the Dutch TTF hit the equivalent of $12.45 per million British thermal units while the UK National Balancing Point natural gas price was around $12.30 per MMBtu.

March 31 (LNGJ) – Norway and the US are keeping up the supply of cargoes to European terminals. Among the steady flow of shipments, the 140,000 cubic metres capacity “Arctic Discoverer” is scheduled to unload on April 2 at the Dunkirk terminal on the Channel Coast of France from the Hammerfest plant in Norway operated by Equinor, according to shipping data. The 147,200 cubic metres capacity vessel “Arctic Lady” will deliver a second Norwegian cargo to France on April 4 when a shipment is discharged at the Fos sur Mer facility on the French Mediterranean coast near Marseilles.

   The 173,400 cubic metres capacity carrier “Oak Spirit” will unload a US cargo on April 1 at the Polish terminal at the Baltic port of Swinoujscie from the Corpus Christi plant in Texas operated by Cheniere Energy. The 165,000 cubic metres capacity “Marib Spirit” will deliver another Corpus Christi cargo on April 7 to the UK South Hook terminal at Milford Haven in Wales.

Oct 11 9LNGJ) - Polish import terminal operator Polskie LNG said it signed a contract with Germany-based equipment company Selas-Linde to deliver vaporisers for the expansion of the Swinoujscie facility on the Baltic Coast. The Swinoujscie terminal expansion will increase capacity to 7.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG from the current 5 MTPA. Plans for a floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) being deployed at the Baltic port of Gdansk are also being advanced.

   “LNG is an important element of the strategy of diversification of sources of natural gas imports to Poland,” said Piotr Naimski of the Polish Government’s Strategic Energy Infrastructure department. The LNG expansions will be complemented by another project called Baltic Pipe to supply Norwegian pipeline natural gas to Poland.