Russia replaced Algeria as Spain’s second-largest natural gas supplier in June after flows from the north African country dropped amid a diplomatic spat.
Imports from Russia reached 8,752 gigawatt-hours in June, more than doubling from May and corresponding to 24% of Spain’s total demand, according to gas network operator Enagas SA. Deliveries from Algeria dropped to 7,763 gigawatt-hours from 9,094 gigawatt hours in May, about half the figure for June 2021 and now representing 22% of demand. The US remains the biggest supplier, with a 30% share.
Last month, gas started to flow from Spain toward Morocco through the Maghreb–Europe pipeline, a link that usually sent fuel in the other direction and which Algeria halted last year. Algeria has said the gas it sends to Spain via another pipeline cannot be re-exported to Morocco.
Spain is also continuing to rely more on liquefied natural gas, which in June represented almost 77% of gas imports, a 29 percentage point increase from the same month in 2021. While Algerian gas is mostly sent to Spain via pipeline, with LNG representing only a small part, Russian supplies are all LNG.