BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28. Exports to Europe via interconnections with France have increased by 12.2 TWh, due to the current European energy situation, highlighting the importance of international interconnections in this context, Trend reports with reference to Spanish Enagas company.
Reportedly, natural gas demand and exports through interconnections have increased by 10.1 percent in the first half of 2022. The demand for natural gas for electricity generation has increased by +73.4 percent, recording three consecutive records since June.
Conventional demand, which represents around 71 percent of natural gas demand in Spain, has shown a decrease of 10.3 percent as of 30 June 2022, affected by the decline in industrial demand.
The Spanish gas system has a total of 25 fuel tanks storages, 8 berths and capacity to receive LNG vessels of up to 270 000 cubic metres (m3). In 2019 gas receipts from LNG terminals to the transmission grid rebounded almost 57 percent from 2018. However, the utilisation rate of Spain’s LNG regasification capacity is relatively low, at only 21 percent on average between 2012 and 2018 and 36 percent in 2019.
The Spanish gas transport grid reached a total length of 13 361 km of pipelines in 2019, with seven LNG terminals (six operating) and four underground storage facilities, providing natural gas to 1 805 municipalities), and over 7.9 million supply points. The gas pipeline network has 19 compressor stations, 45 transmission centres, and 416 measurement and regulation stations. Notably, the circular structure of the gas grid allows nearly every region of the country to be supplied from two directions, which makes Spain unique in comparison to its neighbours. All this allows smooth distribution of gas throughout the national territory, ensuring security of natural gas supply even in peak demand situations. Infrastructures have been able to cover the high annual demand of 36.1 bcm in 2019 without restrictions. This demand was well below the historical maximum demand of above 40 bcm in 2008, when infrastructure was less developed.
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