LNG

June 11 (LNGJ) - Enagás, the Spanish natural gas grid and LNG terminals operator, recorded a drop of 18.6 percent in May natural gas imports compared with May 2023 with Russian and Nigerian LNG imports declining. Data from Enagás showed that Spain imported the equivalent of 28,264 gigawatt hours in May, the equivalent of 2.89 billion cubic metres of natural gas. This included regasified LNG as well as pipeline gas from Algeria and France, compared with 34,709 GWh, or 3.55 Bcm of gas, in the same month last year.

   Russia was the largest LNG supplier to Spain with 6,416 GWh, or 511,450 tonnes of LNG, down from 9,663 GWh in May 2023. The US was the second-largest LNG supplier with 3,893 GWh followed by Nigeria with 2,932 GWh, down from 6,813 GWh in 2023. Qatar supplied 1,742 GWh of the LNG total and Algeria delivered 1,477 GWh of LNG and 8,791 GWh of pipeline gas.

Enagás, Spain’s natural gas grid and LNG network operator, reported slight declines in 2022 net profits and revenues after a year of high volatility in the energy markets with the Spanish Gas System operating without halt and Enagás infrastructure helping maintain the security of supply of the European Union.

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.

July 27 (LNGJ) - Enagás, the Spanish gas grid and LNG terminals operator as well as a shareholder in the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), posted first-half net profits of €213.1 million ($251.2M), with greater contributions from subsidiaries while total demand for natural gas in Spain increased by 6.3 percent in the first six months of 2021.

   The company said that the contribution to earnings from the US Tallgrass Energy pipelines unit and the TAP represented 40.4 percent of the total. Enagás said that since being commissioned at the end of 2020, the TAP pipeline that links Turkey with Italy through Greece and Albania had delivered 3 billion cubic metres of gas to customers through the end of June 2021.

Naturgy, the Spanish utility with Latin American assets and LNG volumes from the US and Russia, and state-run Algerian company Sonatrach have agreed to purchase the stake in the Medgaz natural gas pipeline from Algeria to Europe held by United Arab Emirates energy company Mubadala.

Enagas, the Spanish natural gas network operator and LNG terminal owner, posted a third-quarter net profit of 106 million euros ($122.7M) as domestic industrial demand for natural gas edged higher, while it also reported progress on Europe’s Southern Gas Corridor venture.

April 24 (LNGJ) - Enagas, the Spanish natural gas network and LNG import terminal operator, posted a first-quarter net profit of 103.9 million euros ($126.7M), a rise of 1 percent compared with the same three months of 2017. The company said its performance was mainly due to two factors, control of operating and financial expenses and positive performances by affiliates. “Demand for natural gas in Spain grew by 5.2 percent in the first quarter,” said Enagas. “Total demand for the year to date was more than 7 percent,” added the company. Enagas continued to invest in European projects, including construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline in which it holds a 16 percent stake. The pipeline construction was about 70 percent complete and the start-up is scheduled for 2020.

European liquefied natural gas terminal stakeholders and network operators in Spain, Italy and Belgium have won majority control of the Greek gas grid operator sold in a tender by the government privatization agency.

Oct 17 (LNGJ) - Enagas, the Spanish LNG terminal and natural gas transmission network owner, posted a net profit of 322.5 million euros ($380M) for the first nine months, a rise of 1.6 percent compared with 2016.  The company said natural gas demand in Spain rose by 9.3 percent in the year to September. “This increase was driven by continued growth in demand from the industrial sector, which represents 60 percent of total demand for natural gas,” said Enagas.

Sept 22 (LNGJ) - The 141,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “LNG Cross River” is scheduled to unload a shipment on September 23 at the Huelva terminal in southwest Spain from the Bonny Island plant in Nigeria, according to shipping data. The 155,000 cubic metres capacity vessel “Gaslog Saratoga” is scheduled to deliver a cargo on September 25 to the French Montoir-de-Bretagne terminal near the Loire river estuary on the Atlantic coast from Ras Laffan in Qatar.