Algeria cements position as Spain's leading gas supplier, accounting for 47% of sales in July

The European Commission has confirmed that, from 1 January 2027, all purchases of gas from Russia, which currently remains one of Europe's main suppliers, will be banned.

If nothing changes, someone will have to fill that gap ahead of winter at a particularly sensitive geopolitical moment, as the war in the Middle East has sharply reduced the global supply of gas due to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Algeria has already begun to fill that gap for Spain. Looking at the cumulative period from January to July, Algeria tops the ranking of suppliers to the Spanish market, with 74,336 GWh supplied, combining gas arriving via the Medgaz pipeline and LNG arriving by ship, and a 34.8% share of the total.

During the first few months of the year, Spain has diversified its natural gas purchases across 14 different countries of origin. Nigeria took second place in July, supplying 3,956 GWh (15.4% of the total), ahead of the US, with 2,973 GWh (11.6%), and Russia, with 2,088 GWh (8.1%).

Consequently, the total volume of gas entering the Spanish system in July amounted to 25,647 GWh, of which just under half (47.6%) arrived as LNG transported by LNG carriers, while the remaining 52.4% entered via pipeline.

Ship-loading activity rose by 21.7% in July compared with the same month in 2025, rising from 685 GWh to 833 GWh. Spanish underground storage facilities, meanwhile, stood at 72.5% of their capacity as on 9 August, a fill level higher than the European average, which stood at 58.8%

In terms of demand, the domestic gas market recorded a volume of 27,507 GWh in July, 8.4% higher than in the same month of 2025. This increase was driven by the electricity sector, where demand for gas to power combined-cycle plants rose by 31.5% year-on-year to 12,244 GWh, while conventional demand (that of industry, domestic and commercial demand) fell by 5% to 15,263 GWh.

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