Spanish natural gas demand hits record figures

The demand for natural gas in Spain increased by 16.9 percent in the first nine months of 2019 over the same period the previous year, reaching 294 TWh, the highest cumulative figure since 2009.

This increase was mainly due to demand for natural gas for electricity generation and higher industrial consumption of natural gas, the LNG terminal operator Enagás said.

The demand for natural gas for electricity generation reached 85 TWh from January to September, an increase of 99 percent compared to the same months in 2018. This increase is due to the greater use of natural gas as opposed to coal in the thermal gap in a context with more competitive natural gas prices, in addition to low hydroelectricity generation.

Industrial demand, which represents around 54 percent of total natural gas consumption, reached 160 TWh in the first nine months of the year, up 3 percent on the same period last year. This is the highest figure at the end of September since disaggregated data for industrial consumption has been collected.

Demand grew in almost all industrial sectors, particularly in services and paper manufacturing Enagás said.

Additionally, the replacement of coal by natural gas has been the main factor that has led to a 20 percent reduction in CO2 emissions in the power generation mix from January to September 2019 with respect to the same period last year.