Spanish liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports decreased in June, while reloads rose more than four times compared to the same month in the year before, according to Enagas.
LNG imports decreased by 24.4 percent year-on-year to about 16.1 TWh in June and accounted for 60 percent of the total gas imports.
Spanish LNG imports decreased by 30.6 percent year-on-year to about 17.1 TWh in May.
In April, LNG imports reached some 16.1 TWh and some 18.1 TWh in March, while in February LNG imports reached about 18.4 TWh and in January imports reached some 20 TWh.
Including pipeline imports from Algeria (8.64 TWh), France, and Portugal, gas imports to Spain reached about 28.59 TWh last month, a slight drop from some 28.66 TWh in June last year, according to the monthly report by Enagas.
Moreover, national gas demand in June decreased by 19.8 percent year-on-year to some 20.9 TWh.
Demand for power generation dipped by 52.7 percent year-on-year to about 4.49 TWh last month, while conventional demand increased by 1 percent to 16.4 TWh, the LNG terminal operator said.
Storage facilities were 95 percent full in June, compared to 95 percent in the same month last year and 93 percent in the prior month, according to Enagas.
Enagas operates a large network of gas pipelines in Spain and has three wholly-owned LNG import plants in Barcelona, Huelva, and Cartagena.
It also owns 75 percent in the Musel LNG facility, 50 percent in the BBG regasification plant in Bilbao, and 72.5 percent of the Sagunto plant, while Reganosa operates the Mugardos plant.
In August last year, Spanish power group Endesa delivered the first commercial cargo to the El Musel LNG terminal in Gijon.
Endesa completed in April this year the first reloading operation at the facility.
There were no ship unloading or loading operations at the facility during June.
Russia and Algeria biggest LNG suppliers
The seven operational Spanish LNG regasification terminals, unloaded 21 cargoes last month, down by 2 cargoes compared to June last year, the data shows.
Russia was the biggest LNG supplier to Spain in June with about 5.68 TWh, down from 7.67 TWh last year, and the country was followed by Algeria and the US with 4.29 TWh and 3.27 TWh. Algerian volumes jumped from just 0.98 TWh last year and US volumes increased from 5.29 TWh last year.
During June, Spain also received 1.13 TWh from Peru, 0.95 TWh from Nigeria, 0.93 TWh from Norway, and 0.87 TWh from Congo. The cargo from Congo is the second LNG shipment from Eni’s Tango FLNG in Congo.
Russia was also the biggest LNG supplier to Spain in April and May, while the US was the biggest supplier in January and February.
Also, Russia was the biggest LNG supplier in December last year and the US was the biggest supplier to Spain in October and November.
LNG reloads highest this year
Spanish LNG terminals loaded about 1.81 TWh in June, the highest monthly figure this year.
Reloads jumped by 351 percent compared to some 0.4 TWh in the same month last year and they also rose compared to 1.19 TWh in May.
The LNG terminals loaded about 0.45 TWh in April, 0.56 TWh in March, 1.07 TWh in February, and 0.92 TWh in January.
During June, the Sagunto LNG terminal reloaded about 1.07 TWh of LNG, the Barcelona terminal reloaded about 0.31 TWh, the Huelva terminal reloaded some 0.21 TWh, and the Mugardos terminal reloaded about 0.2 TWh.
Moreover, the number of truck loads at the LNG terminals decreased by 3.8 percent year-on-year to 902.
The Huelva LNG terminal completed 185 truck loads in June, while the Barcelona terminal completed 178 truck loads and the Sagunto terminal completed 174 truck loads, the data shows.