However, it insists on its goal of a carbon neutral economy by 2050
MADRID, 11 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government has confirmed that Spanish gas infrastructures reached the highest level of use in the last 15 years in 2022 as a result of the reduction in Russian gas flows to Europe.
As an example, the Executive pointed out in a parliamentary response that the use of the regasification plants of the gas system was 48% higher in 2022 compared to 2021, reaching a total of 338 vessels unloading compared to 254 in the year precedent, while underground storage reached a fill level of 94% on November 1, 2022, compared to 80% in 2021.
Spain does not have a pipeline connection with Russia, but it does have regasification plants that can transform liquefied natural gas (LNG) into natural gas. In fact, Spanish plants have enough capacity to accommodate large methane tankers that transport LNG either to store it here or to later transport it in smaller ships to other parts of the continent such as Livorno (Italy).
If one takes into account that the Russian gas supply has been cut off as a result of the war, the result is that the Spanish gas infrastructures in the year 2022 “have reached the highest level of use in the last 15 years”, details the parliamentary response registered in Congress to a battery of questions signed by several Vox deputies.
In a parliamentary response to which Europa Press has accessed, the Executive explains that Spain is, in reality, in a scenario of gradual reduction in demand for natural gas in the short and medium term.
However, warns the Government, this “is not incompatible” with the fact that last year the Spanish gas system made “its best efforts to maximize the capacity offered to the market to alleviate, as far as possible, the consequences of the reduction in flows of Russian gas to Europe”.
In this same response, the Government recalls that it has the objective of achieving a carbon neutral economy in the year 2050, in line with the European Union. A goal, says the Government, that has been reinforced by the geopolitical context originated as a consequence of the invasion of Ukraine.
Proof of this is that the Council of the European Union voluntarily approved a 15% reduction in demand for natural gas in all EU countries. Accordingly, the Executive approved, in October 2022, the Energy Security Plan, which also seeks to reduce the national consumption of natural gas.
In other parliamentary responses, also to questions from Vox, the Government has disdained expanding the natural gas interconnection network, since this, points out the Executive, has “historically been sufficient for the exchange of this energy resource.
Despite this, it recognizes that the geopolitical context that occurred during 2022 has led to the need to adopt “extraordinary actions that provide more security against energy prices” and that also contribute to increasing the security of supply in the European Union and promote the energy dependence on natural gas.
The Government justifies its rejection of this expansion of the network by the gradual reduction in the consumption of natural gas in all the countries of the European Union in the medium and long term, since it would suppose a condition “that limits the need to build new infrastructures to those essential to guarantee security of supply”.
In a final written response, the Government refers to hydrogen and makes it clear that Spain’s position is that this matter is only produced from renewable energies and never with nuclear energy.
