Spain can store a third of European gas, but has almost no connection

Spain is the country with the largest gas storage and regasification capacity in Europe, a third of the total, although the lack of interconnections with the rest of the continent greatly limits its possibilities of being a supply alternative.

Just over a third (35%) of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage capacity in the EU plus the UK is in Spain, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIP), the association of European infrastructure operators of gas, which is made up of 67 companies belonging to 26 countries, including the United Kingdom.

After Spain (with a capacity of 3.31 million cubic meters), is precisely the United Kingdom, which concentrates 22% of the LNG storage capacity (2.09 million); France (14% and 1.35 million), Belgium (6% and 0.56 million) and Italy (5% and 0.54 million).

Spain is also at the forefront in regasification capacity, the process that is carried out in plants to which the LNG transported in methane tankers arrives in a liquid state.

The gas, transported by ship at 160 degrees below zero in liquid state, is unloaded at the plants and through a process the temperature is increased so that it passes into a gaseous state so that it can then be injected into gas pipelines for transportation.

Specifically, Spain has 27% of all regasification capacity in the EU plus the United Kingdom, which is also the second country with the most capacity (22%). France has 17%; Belgium, 8%, and Italy, 7%.

Spain’s regasification capacity is 1,910.40 gigawatt hours (GWh) per day; that of the United Kingdom, 1,565; that of France, of 1,252.70; that of Belgium, 541, and that of Italy, 514.50.

This high regasification and storage capacity allows Spain to face the current crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine with greater calm than its neighbours, at least in terms of security of supply.

This capacity also gave peace of mind about the security of gas supply when at the end of last year Algeria stopped sending gas through the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline, which crosses Morocco and through which part of the gas that Spain receives from Algeria arrived by pipeline.

The other route is the Medgaz gas pipeline, through which Algeria sends gas directly to the Peninsula and whose capacity has been increased. That expansion is about to become fully operational.

The bottleneck of interconnections

Thus, Spain could be, both due to its regasification and storage capacity and due to its connection with Algeria, an alternative route to the supply of Russian gas to central Europe. However, there is a bottleneck: the lack of connection beyond the Pyrenees with the central European gas system.

The manager of the Spanish gas system, Enagás, has four regasification plants, located in Barcelona, ​​Cartagena (Murcia), Huelva and Gijón (the latter pending final authorizations for its start-up).

In addition, it owns 50% of the Bahía Bizkaia Gas (BBG) plant, in Bilbao, and 72.5% of the Saggas terminal, in Sagunto (Valencia). The Reganosa company also operates the Mugardos LNG terminal in Ferrol (A Coruña).

However, the lack of a sufficient pipeline connection with Europe limits the supply that could go to the continent.

Resume the Midcat interconnection project with France

For this reason, in recent weeks voices have abounded calling for the construction of the Midcat gas pipeline to be resumed, the project for a new gas interconnection with France that was paralyzed due to the objections of the Spanish and French regulators.

Currently, Spain only has two interconnections with France, through Larrau (Navarra) and Irún (Guipúzcoa), which allow the delivery of about 8 bcm per year (8,000 million cubic meters) of gas, while with Midcat it could reach 17 bcm .

The Catalan employers Foment del Treball has requested by letter to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, the urgent reactivation of its construction.

According to Foment estimates, the construction of this infrastructure would entail an economic outlay of 500 million euros, compared to the 700 million paid each day by Europe to Russia for the purchase of gas.

In addition, they consider that this gas pipeline can turn Spain into a great gas ‘hub’ in southern Europe and provide more energy autonomy to the continent, since from Spain it could supply gas that reaches Spain from countries such as Algeria, the United States, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, among others.

Sánchez has shown this week that he is willing to study that connection, although he has said that the pipeline should serve to transport green hydrogen to Europe, in addition to gas.

The project to build Midcat was agreed in 2013 by the governments of Spain, France and Portugal, but it was halted after the Spanish and French regulators (CNMC and CRE) considered in 2019 that it did not meet the needs of the market, although there were also problems about cost sharing between countries.