Russia doubled the price of gas to Spain in December while Algeria cut its shipments

Maximum tension in the energy markets. Russia doubled the sale price of its liquefied natural gas to Spain last December while Algeria, our main supplier, drastically reduced its shipments. According to data collected by Gasindustrial, the Russian Federation went from selling gas at 38.42 euros/MWh last November to charging 86.70 euros in December, which represents a price increase of 126%.

The sharp rise in prices, in one of the months of greatest consumption, was not able to cause a drop in Russian supply, but the arrival of gas in Spain doubled from 2,154 GWh to 4,761 GWh in order to cope with the strong reduction of gas from Algeria.

The United States, for its part, also applied a price increase in its gas shipments to Spain and went from charging 53.88 euros/MWh in November to 63.11 euros, 17 percent more but maintained the high volumes of the previous month.

Liquefied natural gas from the United States became the main source of supply in December, despite the fact that 10,108 GWh arrived in November and 9,274 GWh in December.

Less gas from Algeria

In contrast, Algeria reduced its gas exports to Spain in December by 56%, since the quantities that entered via LNG went from 3,889 GWh to 1,915 GWh and natural gas, that is, via the Medgaz gas pipeline, went from 7,268 GWh in November to 5,309 GWh in December.

The Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, has asked Algeria to increase the volumes of gas it sends to Spain in order to continue channeling it to the heart of Europe this March.

With this market situation, Spain faced significant price increases in its natural gas purchase operations In December, the US positioned itself as the main supplier of gas to Spain with a share of 30.5%. Algeria moved to second place and decreased its share to 23.8%.

LNG supply represented 82% of the total in December, while piped gas remained at 18% in this period.

Piped natural gas continues to be more competitive than LNG in terms of price. Respectively, the prices were 31.71 euros/MWh compared to 61.89 euros/MWh, according to data published by the Tax Agency in December and collected by Gasindustrial.