Spain breaks its historical gas storage pattern in the face of the supply crisis

Spain has broken a historical pattern this summer. Between heat waves and with the pressure of rising prices due to the war in the Middle East, our country extracted more gas from its underground stores than it injected between July and August, months in which it usually accelerates the filling of reserves to ensure the greatest possible cushion before the arrival of the cold.

This is clear from the data collected by EL MUNDO from the daily operations of Enagás, the manager of the gas system, which shows that the national underground storage facilities closed the two-month period with a net extraction balance of 161.2 GWh, contrary to what is usual. The greater consumption of air conditioners and the sharp increase in the use of gas to generate electricity, which grew by 31%, forced the country to resort to stored fuel more frequently than in previous years.

But, if the figures show anything, it is a collapse in arrivals of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by ship. Specifically, almost 23% less LNG was discharged in Spanish regasification terminals than in the same period in 2025. The main cause is the LNG carriers that change course in search of the highest bidder for cargoes that continue to be highly valued due to the blockade in Hormuz.

At this point in the year, sector sources rule out the risk of shortages in Spain this winter. Underground warehouses closed August at 74% full, nine percentage points above the EU average (65%). However, the physical capacity of our subsoil is also significantly lower than that of Germany or France, so the same filling percentage here translates into fewer tons of stored fuel.

All in all, Spain is much less dependent on these underground reserves than most Member States. And the country's true energy shield for the cold months is its regasification terminals, gigantic port structures where the LNG that arrives by sea is stored and transformed back into its original gaseous state.

The EU is the world's largest importer of LNG, but before the Ukraine war its regasification capacity was dangerously low. A country like Germany, the largest gas consumer of the 27, did not have a single LNG plant, since it had relied everything on the gas it received from Russia by pipeline (cheaper).

Spain was a rare bird and, even today, it has the largest LNG infrastructure in the EU, but it is no longer that single window through which, almost necessarily, the vast majority of LNG tankers had to pass to unload in the Old Continent. France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands saw the wolf's ears and accelerated terminals capable of absorbing more LNG, mainly from the United States.

«Spain has an advantage, but we must be aware that we are no longer measuring ourselves only against Asia. We are no longer the only European player and now we compete with countries with more purchasing capacity," warn sources in the sector.

Donald Trump's fantasy of a quick war in Iran has fallen under its own weight, upsetting markets. Under the premise that prices would normalize soon, Spain and others of the 27 postponed the filling campaign while waiting to buy cheaper gas. But the supply and price shock persists and the global bid for LNG has intensified.

Last March, a barrel of Brent was trading above $100 and the Dutch TTF, the reference index for gas prices in Europe, climbed to levels of €55/MWh. These days, crude oil is moving around $90 and the TTF has rebounded, opening the September price at €70/MWh. What this newspaper reported in March as a slow trickle of ships that diverted shortly before touching the European coast, today is a direct blow to the supply of the Twenty-seven.

In Spain, this perfect storm led underground storage facilities to close with a net extraction of 589.2 GWh in July, compared to the net injection of 2,018 GWh the previous year. This is an unprecedented fact, at least since 2021, since the gas system had not had to resort to emptying its reserves in the month of July to balance supply and demand.

In August the balance was reversed, with a net injection of 428 GWh, a momentary relief that was light years away from the volume stored in August 2025, when 2,087 GWh were injected. That is, there was a 79.5% drop in the filling rate. Furthermore, the end-of-summer recharge did not compensate for the July hole, breaking the usual safety pattern.

And from the underground to the ports. Between July and August, LNG unloaded at Spanish regasification terminals fell from 33,766 GWh in 2025 to 26,006 GWh in 2026, 23% less. If we look at the number of LNG carriers, thirteen vessels were unloaded in July, the minimum recorded that month in the last five years. Although the arrival of LNG ships rebounded in August to 23, well above the 15 a year earlier, even so the volume of LNG unloaded in August (17,001 GWh) did not grow proportionally compared to the eighth month of 2025 (15,261 GWh).