(Reuters) -Imports of liquefied natural gas from the United States rose to 35% of Spain’s total gas imports in the first four months of this year from just over 20% a year ago, while imports of Russian LNG declined, data showed on Friday.
Europe has increasingly imported superchilled gas shipped from the U.S. since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine significantly reduced the amount of Russian gas piped to Europe.
In the first four months of the year, Spain imported the equivalent of 45,932 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of gas from the U.S., compared with 24,885 GWh a year earlier, according to data from Spanish gas grid operator Enagas.
The U.S. has become the main gas supplier to Spain, replacing Algeria, which ships liquefied gas and also pumps gas directly to Spain through pipelines.
Spain’s overall gas demand declined by 3%, Enagas said.
The U.S. liquefied gas also replaced the liquefied gas sent from Russia. As a share of Spain’s total imported gas, Russian gas fell to 13.3% in the first four months of this year down from 22.4% in the same period last year.
(Reporting by Joao Manuel Mauricio in Gdansk, editing by Inti Landauro and Louise Heavens)
