Uncertainty about the possible shortage of gas plagues all corners of Europe. Dependence on Russian hydrocarbons is a headache for Brussels bureaucrats. However, and although some countries – such as Spain – boast of their autonomy, today’s data shows that nearly 11% of the gas our country receives comes from Russian fields, with Putin-led country being the our fourth exporter. In the midst of this scenario, the Russian embassy in Spain participates in the newspaper La Información to send a message: the only gas contract between the Spanish company Naturgy and the Russian company Novatek will be fulfilled until 2043.
“We have a very promising contract with Spain between Naturgy and Novatek – a private Russian company – for the import of liquefied natural gas. This contract will be in effect, if nothing happens, until 2043. The first supply was in 2018 and the total volume of this contract represents more or less 10% of the entire volume of gas that Spain receives. We could be 21 years of trouble free supply. Russia will not close anything on its own. We don’t want those reprisals for Spain. But EU policy can cause that gas to stop. One day some European politicians will say that paying the Russians for LNG is undemocratic, as has already happened with oil. Everything will depend on Brussels in this sense“, underlines the economic and commercial adviser, Aleksander Korchagin.
Furthermore, they add that “it is a contract between the two companies. We know that the Spanish side is complying with all the requirements of the contract. LNG carriers regularly arrive on the Spanish coasts, both in Mugardos (Galicia) and in Bilbao (Basque Country). their work and nothing happens. We don’t see any danger“.
From the Spanish energy company, naturgythey prefer not to make statements regarding the contract in question, even if they add that they do not have any kind of relationship with the executive of Vladimir Putin, but rather with the consortium of private companies – called Yamal LNG (where the Russian Novatek controls 50.1% of the capital) – with which they reached an agreement in 2013. According to the embassy, the result of this agreement materialized for the first time in 2018, when the first tanker unloaded the Russian hydrocarbon in one of the regasifiers in our country.
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The delicate situation of Naturgy in Algeria is added to the gas contract in Russia. The energy company is now making the calculations to face the horizon of uncertainty that awaits us. Thus, the revision of the mega gas supply contract with the Algerian state company Sonatrach, which will update the price of hydrocarbons and whose cost is retroactive, has prompted the Spanish energy company to adjust its accounts.
Message to the Spanish business community
In the Russian embassy they assure that “since February we have witnessed a cataract of European companies that have proclaimed their departure from Russia. The Spanish presence in our territory is very small if we compare it with other countries. Except for some companies such as porcelainwhich has made it clear that they want nothing to do with Russia, the vast majority of Spanish companies have only suspended their business with the intention of re-establishing all the contacts they had after the war “. some have very succulent business, so , as recognized by the embassy, Collected techniques construction of the “largest” refinery in Moscow is still pending.
The embassy sends a message to the Spanish business community that has left the country. “The departure of European companies can open up opportunities for Russian companies. We have an open door, but each time this door closes a little. In two months, a Spanish company will still be able to reinstall its business without any problem, but between one year the situation could change and your position on the market could be replaced by a Russian company “.
Korchagin makes an x-ray of the bilateral trade between the two countries: “In 2013before all this, we had a bilateral trade with Spain of approx 12 billion of euros, in 2015 it was a third-party-around 4,000 millions-, and last year, thanks to the increase in the price of oil and gas, it rose to 9 billion. We will see how it will be this year. Finally, they limit the negative economic impact of Spain’s active participation in sanctions against Russia on the tourism sector. “In 2019, 1,350,000 tourists The Russians arrived in Spain. After the sanctions, only a few tens of thousands they got here. Spain has lost the Russian tourist, who spends 20 times more than the German or English tourist … and this damages the Spanish economy “.
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