Spanish liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and reloads decreased in May compared to the same month last year. Russia and the US were the biggest LNG suppliers to Spain in May, according to Enagas.
LNG imports decreased by 30.6 percent year-on-year to about 17.1 TWh in May and accounted for 61.1 percent of the total gas imports. 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 (8.79 TWh), France, and Portugal, gas imports to Spain reached about 28.2 TWh last month, a drop from some 34.7 TWh in May last year, Enagas said in its monthly report.
Moreover, national gas demand in May decreased by 8.5 percent year-on-year to some 22.4 TWh.
Demand for power generation dipped by 38.3 percent year-on-year to about 4.27 TWh last month, while conventional demand increased by 3.3 percent to 18.1 TWh, the LNG terminal operator said.
Storage facilities were were 93 percent full in May, compared to 91 percent in the same month last year and 87 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.
Russia and US biggest LNG suppliers
The seven operational Spanish LNG regasification terminals, unloaded 18 cargoes last month, down by 8 cargoes compared to May last year, the data shows.
Russia was the biggest LNG supplier to Spain in May with about 6.41 TWh, down from 9.66 TWh last year, and the country was followed by the US with 3.89 TWh, up compared to 1.96 TWh last year.
Nigerian LNG volumes to Spain dropped to 2.93 TWh last month from 6.81 TWh last year, while Qatari volumes rose to 1.74 TWh from 0.87 TWh last year. Spain also received 1.47 TWh from Algeria and 0.82 TWh from Trinidad in May.
Russia was the biggest LNG supplier to Spain in April and 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 1.19 TWh in May, the highest monthly figure this year but a drop compared to the previous year.
Reloads decreased by 44.7 percent compared to some 2.16 TWh in the same month last year and they rose compared to 0.45 TWh in April.
The LNG terminals loaded about 0.56 TWh in March, 1.07 TWh in February, and 0.92 TWh in January.
The Mugardos LNG terminal reloaded about 0.74 TWh of LNG, the Barcelona terminal reloaded about 0.27 TWh, and the Huelva terminal reloaded some 0.18 TWh during May.
Moreover, the number of truck loads at the LNG terminals rose by 7.6 percent year-on-year to 1,009.
The Huelva LNG terminal completed 198 truck loads in May, while the Barcelona terminal completed 195 truck loads and the Cartagena terminal completed 185 truck loads, the data shows.