Madrid (EFE).- Spanish underground gas stores are at 78% of their capacity, which almost doubles the Brussels recommendation to have them at least 40% at the beginning of spring to thus have a more comfortable for next winter.
According to data from the sector association Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), the three national warehouses -Serrablo (Huesca), Gaviota (Bizkaia) and Yela (Guadalajara)- had 27.6 terawatt hours (TWh) as of March 20, 78.2% of the total capacity, equivalent to the national consumption of 29 days in winter.
A year ago, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine was almost a month old and Brussels was already beginning to warn of the need to start filling up gas reserves for the recently finished winter, Spain had a filling volume of 58%, with 19.9 TWh.
Brussels’ decision to rapidly increase gas reserves caused the price of this raw material to reach all-time highs last summer, exceeding 300 euros per megawatt hour (MWh).
Despite this, both in March 2022 and now, Spain has always had its warehouses at levels well above the European average, thanks to the diversification of suppliers -led mainly by the United States- and the increase in natural gas purchases. liquefied (LNG).
In the case of the European Union, reserves stand on average at 55.8%, with a volume of stored natural gas reaching 626.5 TWh, more than double that of a year ago, when Europe had only one fourth of its full reserves (25.8%), with 286.9 TWh.
Spain, one of the most compliant
With these data, Spain ranks as one of the most compliant Member States in the EU, whose objective for next winter is even more ambitious than this year’s and requires European partners to have 90% of their reserves full in November.
Only Portugal -95.5%- and Sweden -95.2%- currently exceed that European objective, and they are also the only two countries that have a higher fill percentage compared to Spain, which is the third country better positioned in this regard.
In absolute terms, Germany (159.8 TWh), Italy (109.9 TWh) and the Netherlands (81.6 TWh) are the Member States that have ended the winter with the most stored natural gas, although the three countries still have a margin of improvement by having only 60% of their reservations full.
Both Austria (63.9 TWh) and France (38.8 TWh) and Hungary (30.8 TWh) also have more stored gas, although they do not exceed the fill percentage of the three national stores.
However, Spain has several regasification plants that further improve its position and give it greater flexibility in the event that there may be supply problems in Europe in the coming months, especially if the Chinese economy picks up, as the International Agency has recently warned. of Energy (IEA).
45% LNG plants
In this sense, the six regasification plants that Spain currently has (Barcelona, Cartagena -Murcia-, Huelva, Gijón -Asturias-, Bilbao and Sagunto -Valencia-) are currently at 45% of their capacity.
This translates into around 11.6 additional TWh, equivalent to the national gas consumption for two weeks, which raises the buffer for Spain, adding underground reserves and regasification plants, to between 36 and 40 days of the usual demand in winter season.
The Cartagena (Murcia) and Bilbao terminals, in addition to being the ones with the greatest regasification capacity, are the ones with the highest fill percentage to date, specifically 74% and 86%.
The price of gas continues to fall
Added to the better position that both Europe and Spain have for next winter compared to the previous year is the drop in the price of natural gas in international markets, which this week has fallen below 40 euros/MWh in the Dutch TTF market, the benchmark in Europe.
This value is much lower than the more than 300 euros/MWh that were paid last summer as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although economic uncertainty could once again generate market instability in the coming months.
In Spain, the price has stabilized below 60 euros/MWh since the beginning of the year in the Iberian Gas Market (Mibgas), thanks to a warmer winter than usual and the signals sent to the market by the Government , as the cap to the gas.