Spain resumed imports of Russian LNG in October

Resumption of supplies

Spain resumed imports of Russian liquefied natural gas in October. This is evidenced by data from the Spanish energy company Enagas, cited by Gazeta.Ru with reference to RIA Novosti. According to the data, over the month the country received 2,086 GWh of LNG from Russia, which amounted to 6.4% of total imports. This returned Russia to fourth place among the largest gas suppliers to Spain for the month.

Import structure

The leader in LNG supplies to Spain in October remained the United States with a share of 44.3%. Algeria took second place (30.6%), and Portugal third (6.9%), only slightly ahead of Russia. Thus, the four largest suppliers accounted for almost 88% of monthly imports.

A ban on the horizon

The resumption of purchases comes against the backdrop of previously announced plans by Madrid to abandon Russian LNG. Spain's Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares reported that the country plans to ban supplies from January 1 of next year, despite existing contracts: according to him, Spain will comply with EU restrictions, although some Spanish companies have long-term LNG supply contracts. He also noted that Spain has some of the largest LNG storage and processing capacities in Europe and could help other countries with supplies from 'reliable partners', such as the United States. Earlier, the Spanish Foreign Ministry stated that Russian LNG supplies to the EU would continue.

What remains unknown

The Enagas data reflect the actual situation in October, whereas the ban Albares spoke about is an announced measure, not one in effect. The available publications do not report the reasons for the October resumption of purchases or how Spanish companies will fulfill long-term contracts after the ban takes effect.