2023-11-09 08:35:06
Spain moves to reinforce security of supply gas natural during the winter season, in which the months of greatest consumption are concentrated. The objective is to squeeze out all the country’s gas entry and exit infrastructure and storage. For it, Enagásthe gas system manager, has activated new measures to make the most of large infrastructures in the middle of winter and prevent imbalances in the operations of energy companies from affecting the entire system.
The Spanish underground gas warehouses have been 100% full since last August, exceeding the European Union’s demands to reach 90% by November as part of its supply guarantee measures due to the war in Ukraine and to alleviate the effects of the energy crisis. And the tanks of national regasification plants are also filled to such an extent that they currently contain half of all the liquefied natural gas (LNG) stored in all EU countries. Despite this exceptional reserve situation, Spain has decided shield yourself by taking additional measures, even above the demands set by Europe.
The winter gas season that now begins (from November to March) will be the first in which a set of extraordinary measures will be applied that the EU requires to be applied to gas interconnections between countries, but that In Spain they will also be carried out to reinforce the operations of the regasification plants national (those that receive gas by ship), as confirmed by Enagás sources.
Don’t waste anything
Spain has activated anti-hoarding mechanisms so they don’t get lost slots of loading and unloading by ship nor contracted storage capacity in warehouses, plant tanks or in the gas pipeline network if the winning companies are ultimately unable to execute them. In the event that a gas company is not going to use the awarded capacity, Enagás has the ability to transfer it to another company on an exceptional basis. In addition, a organized secondary capacity market so that companies can resell contracted capacity in underground warehouses or LNG plant tanks if they are ultimately not going to use them. The objective is that no capacity is left vacant or wasted due to company imbalances and that other companies can use it.
After years closed tight and never having come into operation since its construction, the El Musel plant, in the port of Gijón, was launched last summer to be used only as a logistics warehouse for liquefied gas for re-export. However, if the state of exceptional operation of the gas system is declared or one of the different crisis levels is activated, the Government may decree that the Gijón plant not only function as a warehouse, but may also be activated as a regasification plant to inject gas to the Spanish networks.
Guaranteed gas supply
“The information currently available on high levels of contracting and high filling in underground storage and LNG plants at the beginning of winter reflect the commitment of users to the gas system, which allows us to face this period with supply guarantee to cover national demand and reinforce the security of European supply through exports through international connections and reloading of ships from Spanish terminals,” explains Enagás in the operational forecast report for the 2023-2024 winter season sent to everyone. the agents of the national gas system.
In parallel, gas companies currently already have A total of 146 boat discharges scheduled at Spanish regasification plants for the winter season, above the 143 for the same period last year, according to Enagás records. A figure, furthermore, that will foreseeably increase in the coming months through the monthly auctions and the intermonthly processes planned until the end of the season (during the winter season last year, a total of 16 extra slots were contracted through these mechanisms for ships).
The Government has tried to facilitate the exploitation of gas stores throughout the energy crisis by applying successive reductions in rates paid by energy companies for using them, at a time when these reserves have become a key element. The Executive has already been applying a partial exoneration of the costs linked to extra injections to meet the EU requirement of filling the tanks to 90%, and since last October a reduction in the different fees that operators pay has also been applied. for injecting, storing or extracting gas in Spanish underground storage since last October and during the following twelve months.
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