Spain has become the first country in the EU to completely fill its gas warehouses to prepare for any supply problems during the winter. Its progress is at the forefront of the EU, which has also accelerated these weeks and achieved the goals set for November 1 two months in advance. With this effort, the region takes a decisive step in view of the threat that Russia boasted about in its propaganda videos just a year ago: an icy winter without gas in Europe.
Spanish gas storages reached a level of 100% three days ago, on Saturday, that is, at full capacity. It is an unprecedented level that contributes to the EU average standing at 91%, according to data from Gie Agsi, the European platform for monitoring this activity.
The CEO of Enagás, Arturo Gonzalo, showed his satisfaction with this milestone in statements to La Vanguardia yesterday. “Europe has reached levels difficult to imagine” in March 2022, when the European Commission launched its emergency plan following the invasion of Ukraine. Spain has achieved “a historic record” of storage which, added to the capacity of its regasification plants, “makes us face the winter with great strength in terms of security of supply”, he says.
A year ago, after the invasion of Ukraine, the EU launched an emergency plan to cover at least 80% of gas reserves by November 1, in anticipation of Russia cutting off the supply in the winter and cause a serious supply crisis. It was quite a challenge, at a time when the price of gas suddenly multiplied in the international quotation and marked historical highs.
For this year, the goal was more ambitious, 90%, but the circumstances have helped and it has been achieved two months ahead of the planned date. Spain is the most advantaged country, ahead of 97% of Croatia and 95% of Sweden and Portugal. In Germany, the percentage is 92.7%, and in France, 85.8%.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, congratulated herself on the X social network for this milestone, which “will help to be safe in winter” and which will “liberate” the EU from Russian gas. The next objective, he says, is to progress in the diversity of supply sources.
Between all the countries of the EU they already have a gas reserve equivalent to 1,034 terawatt hours (TWh), which constitutes 27% of annual consumption. Germany has combined its storages with the arrival of gas by ship to still provisional floating regasifiers.
One of the keys to filling warehouses above 90% is the price of gas, which quadrupled a year ago and is now close to the average of the last decade. Neither the Nordstream sabotage, nor the uncertainty due to a veto in Russia that goes beyond oil, nor the growing demand for gas from Asia have been enough to destabilize the supply. A strike in Australia has been the only event that has moved the price of this hydrocarbon upwards during the summer.
The EU, taking into account Gie Agsi’s data, has now become a real gas storage machine. Before the invasion of Ukraine, in 2021, European reserves were at 63% at this same time of the year, and Spain at 71%.
Last year, with the Twenty-seven already on guard after the invasion of Ukraine, 90% was reached in October. There was also a luck factor: the winter was warmer than expected, and when it ended in March, levels were 56%, above the 40% limit before the alarms go off. Before the war, it was common to reach the end of winter in percentages of 25%.
In reality, Spain’s success in filling reserves has nuances, because the country does not stand out for these infrastructures, barely able to respond to 10% of demand, but for the regasification plants, the most numerous throughout the EU, which make it the entrance by ship for gas from anywhere in the world. Spain has four underground storages, which are the Aragonese of Serrablo, the Basque of Gaviota, the Mancheque of Yela and the Andalusian of Marismas, to which we must add the gas tanks next to the ports, including those in Barcelona.
Of all the underground infrastructures, the largest is that of Gaviota, which is located in the sea, about eight kilometers off the coast of Bermeo, in Biscay, and which stores almost half of all the gas underground. Distances aside, this reservoir is similar to the failed Castor project, which was built off the coast of Castelló and which had to be suspended due to the earthquakes caused at the time of filling.
The gas stored by Spain represents 34 TWh of energy for a country that consumes 338. It is 10% of all demand, so it exceeds in percentage Portugal or Belgium, but not the large European economies such as Germany, which in has stored 234 TWh, 25% of its consumption, or France, which reaches 116 TWh, 27%.
Despite this, Spain has an advantage over its neighbors in receiving gas, either through the Maghreb gas pipeline or through regasification plants for liquefied natural gas (LNG) arrived by boat. Of the fifteen regasifiers in the EU, seven are in Spain.
The most paradoxical thing is that Russia continues to be one of the biggest suppliers of gas, also according to data from Enagás. Algeria, with 25%, was until July the first source of supply thanks to the gas pipeline that reaches Almeria, while Russia contributes 21% and leads the arrival by ship, ahead of the United States, the weight of which it is 19%. Nigeria contributes another 13%.
