Spanish liquefied natural gas imports and reloads dropped in October compared to the same month last year, according to LNG terminal operator Enagas.
LNG imports decreased by 8 percent to about 21.8 TWh in October and accounted for 67.6 percent of the total gas imports. In September, LNG imports reached some 19.2 TWh.
Including pipeline imports from Algeria, France, and Portugal, gas imports to Spain reached about 33.8 TWh last month, a drop from some 36.9 TWh in October last year, Enagas said in its monthly report.
Moreover, national gas demand in October dropped by 10.6 percent year-on-year to some 25 TWh.
Demand for power generation declined by 42 percent year-on-year to about 8.3 TWh last month, while conventional demand rose by 22.3 percent to 16.7 TWh, the LNG terminal operator said.
The firm previously said that August of this year marked the first time in its history that Spain has managed to fill 100 percent of its underground storage facilities.
Storage facilities were also full in October, according to Enagas.
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.
In August, Spanish power group Endesa delivered the first commercial cargo to the El Musel LNG terminal in Gijon.
Enagas awarded the logistics services contract to Endesa in July and it also recently completed the sale of a 25 percent stake in the El Musel LNG terminal to Reganosa.
US and Algeria biggest LNG suppliers
The seven operational Spanish LNG regasification terminals, unloaded 25 cargoes last month, the same as in October 2022, according to Enagas.
The US was the biggest LNG supplier to Spain in October with about 6.96 TWh, up from 6.35 TWh last year, followed by Algeria with 6 TWh that did not supply any LNG cargoes to Spain in October 2022.
Nigeria was the biggest LNG supplier to Spain in September and the US in August. Prior to that, Russia was the biggest supplier for three months in a row.
Spanish LNG terminals received 4.28 TWh from Russia in October, slightly down from 4.33 TWh last year, while Qatari volumes reached 1.81 TWh, and Nigerian volumes reached 1.76 TWh, the data shows.
Cameroon also supplied 1.1 TWh to Spain in October.
LNG reloads down
Spanish LNG terminals loaded about 2.66 TWh in October, down 36 percent compared to some 4.14 TWh in October 2022 but up from about 0.62 TWh in September.
The Sagunto LNG terminal reloaded about 1.69 TWh of LNG, followed by the Bilbao terminal with about 0.69 TWh and the Barcelona terminal with about 0.26 TWh.
On the other hand, the number of truck loads at the LNG terminals rose by 21.5 percent year-on-year to 950, the data shows.
The Huelva LNG terminal completed 191 truck loads in October, while the Barcelona terminal completed 188 truck loads.