Just under 10% of the natural gas that Spain imported from abroad comes from Russia, a supply that might be compromised if that country decides on a military intervention in its neighbor Ukraine.
However, in recent days both the third vice-president of the Government, Theresa Rivera, such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, have ensured that Spain will not suffer natural gas supply problems because of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, although it might be affected by a rise in the price of this raw material.
According to data from the Strategic Reserves of Petroleum Products Corporation (Cores), In November, 9.8% of natural gas imports to Spain came from Russia, a long way from Algeria, which with 31.9% is our main supplier.
In the accumulated of the year, Russia has imported 32,832 gigawatt hours (GWh) of natural gas to Spain, Y It is the fourth country with the largest volume of imports with 8.7% of the total, behind Algeria (44.5%), USA (13.3%) and Nigeria (10.9%), and surpassing Qatar (6.7%), France (4.6%), Trinidad and Tobago ( 3.3%) and Norway (2.9%).
Since it began supplying gas to Spain in 2018 through the Yamal LNG plant, Russia has been increasing its participation in the imports that Spain receives annually, going from 2.5% with which it closed 2018 and 8.5% in 2019, before the pandemic broke out, to 10.4% in 2020.
Despite this, Algeria continues to be the country that exports the most natural gas to Spain, both by gas pipeline and by ship, although their share has been changing in recent years -it was 51.3% in 2018, 33.1% in 2019 and 29.1% in 2020- coinciding with the increase in imports from the US.
Russian gas arrives by ship
Unlike Algeria, the gas that Russia exports to Spain arrives through methane tankers at 160 degrees Celsius below zero in a liquid state (liquefied natural gas), which is discharged at the six regasification plants owned by the manager of the Spanish gas system Enagás, where it is converted to a gaseous state.
As there is no gas pipeline connecting the two countries, in addition to the relatively low percentage of natural gas that Spain receives from Russia, the outbreak of a possible international conflict would not have such a direct effect in Spain as it would in other European countries such as Germany, much more dependent on Russian supply due to its geographical location.
Currently, Spain has six international connection points for the supply of natural gas: two with Algeria, through Tarifa (Cádiz) and Almería (with the Maghreb and Medgaz gas pipelines, respectively); two with Portugal, through Badajoz and Tuy (Pontevedra); and another two with France, by Irún (Guipúzcoa) and Larrau.
In the event of not being able to continue importing natural gas from Russia, Spain would have to find other alternatives that go through increasing imports from other markets, as it did when at the beginning of November a diplomatic conflict between Algeria and Morocco caused the closure of the Maghreb-Europe (GME) gas pipeline following 25 years of uninterrupted supply.
The closure of this route, which provided Spain with 25% of its natural gas supply, forced Spain to increase the supply it receives through the other gas pipeline that connects it with Algeria, Megdaz, and to receive the rest of the natural gas through methane tankers in the form of liquefied natural gas.
In this sense, 46.3% of the net imports received by Spain so far this year came through gas pipelines, compared to 53.7% who did it by boat, a percentage that in 2020 was 35.3% and 64.7%, respectively.
Possible increase in the price of natural gas
What might cause a military intervention by Russia in Ukraine would be the rise in the price of natural gas, which is already at very high levels as a result of the energy crisis that is plaguing much of Europe.
Along these lines, Ribera pronounced a few days ago that, despite assuring that the supply of natural gas in Spain was guaranteed, He said that the situation caused by a possible Russian invasion was “disturbing” and might impact the prices of this raw material.
“It is a very sensitive subject. Spain has a solid position in terms of supply guarantee and, in addition, the regasification infrastructure that we have allows rapid access to liquefied natural gas by ship and therefore there is no supply problem with very different sources,” Efe explained a few days ago.