Algeria and Russia Fight for Spanish LNG Market

For the first two summer months, it was an almost even fight between Algeria and Russia, the two main suppliers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Spanish market. In June, Russia won the “title” of LNG supplier No. 1, but just a month later, Algeria literally snatched the victory and climbed to the top of the Spanish classification of the largest LNG suppliers. According to the Spanish energy company Enagas, in July 2023, Algeria sold 28.7% of all imported LNG to the Kingdom, while Russia, with its supplies growing from 26.8% in June to 27.6% in July, still ended up second. Ranked third is the United States of America that controls about 19% of the Spanish market for imported liquefied natural gas.
Compared to July 2022, Russian gas exports to Spain increased by 65% in 2023. Russian industrial group Novatek supplies gas to the Spanish company Naturgy under a long-term contract, according to which the LNG price for Madrid is well below current market prices.
In mid-June, the head of Total Energies, Patrick Pouyanné, said that European countries agreed to continue buying LNG from Russia, despite ever-increasing pressure from the USA. He noted that in 2022, the European Union imported more than 15 million tons of LNG from Russia, which is one-sixth of all the needs by the EU countries estimated at 100 million tons per year.