Algerian deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Spain through LNG ships have reached their “lowest level in history,” shows recent data published on Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
Between January and November 2022, the volume of LNG that Spain received through this route decreased by 74% compared to the same period in 2021, according to the latest data collected by Enagás.
During that same period, Spain received 5,400 GW/h of Algerian liquefied gas, compared to nearly 21,100 GW/h in the first eleven months of last yea, the lowest level ever recorded.
For seven years, “Algerian LNG inflow had never fallen below 10,000 GWh as of November, with the exception of 2020, the year of the pandemic, when demand plummeted in the context of global economic standstill,” recalls El Mundo.
“The slump has occurred at a time of particular tension between Spain and Algeria, following the diplomatic turnaround by the government of Pedro Sanchez on the situation in Western Sahara.”
“Despite the fact that the Executive has minimized from the beginning the impact of the diplomatic conflict with Algiers, the rift between the two countries, historical partners in energy matters, reached such a point that the Algerian authorities ordered their banks to freeze commercial operations with Spain last June,” details the news outlet.
The slowdown in the flow of Algerian LNG comes in the context of a critical year for Europe, which has been engaged in an unprecedented race to secure gas in the face of Russia’s threat of a total supply cut-off.
Assuring that a true gas crisis will occur in 2023 and 2024 despite European countries having secured reserves above 90% each, Engas is diluting public worries on gas shortages, saying: “We continue to have very significant imports through the Algerian gas pipeline (Medgaz), which until November is the second supplier of natural gas to Spain”, quotes El Mundo.
By the end of November, US vessels covered 28.5% of Spanish national demand, ahead of Algerian vessels and pipelines, whose share fell to 23.7%.
The bulk of Algerian gas exports to Spain has been made through pipeline, considering they share both the Medgaz, still operational, and the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline, which crosses Morocco, closed by Algeria in November 2021.
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