Spanish LNG throughput dropped 26.2% year on year in the week ending March 9 weighed by a drop to zero at the Sagunto terminal, data published Monday by Spanish gas grid operator Enagas showed.

Combined throughput from Spain's six LNG terminals in the week that ended Sunday was 1.99 TWh, down from 2.70 TWh in the same week last year with annualized decreases at five of the six terminals, Enagas data showed.

Throughput at Sagunto, near Valencia was zero throughout the week, compared to 351 GWh a year earlier, with Enagas not supplying a reason nor reporting any maintenance or incidents at the site. Elsewhere, throughput at Spain's largest terminal, Barcelona, fell 12.4% to 729 GWh, while there were also decreases at Huelva, down 21.0% to 376 GWh, Cartagena, down 39.5% to 178 GWh, and Mugardos, down 30.8% to 166 GWh.

At Bilbao, throughput increased 7.7% year on year to 541 GWh.

Just two tankers were unloaded during the week: one at Cartagena with 71,500 cubic meters of liquid and one at Huelva with 131,800 cu m.

Otherwise, one reload and one partial reload were concluded during the week, at Mugardos, for a combined 50,600 cu m, meaning the plant was a net exporter during the week.

Barcelona, Bilbao and Sagunto, meanwhile, neither received nor reloaded cargoes during the week.

Overall, Spanish national gas demand continued to show an annual decline, falling 8.0% from the same week last year to 6.06 TWh.

Conventional gas demand from homes and businesses last week was down 8.3% year on year at 5.33 TWh while demand for power generation was 730 GWh, Enagas said, down 6.3% year on year.

PIPELINE THROUGHPUT UP

In other data released Monday, Enagas said that weekly net pipeline imports were up 2.5% compared with the same week last year, totaling 4.08 TWh, with increases on all three major import links offset by increased exports to Portugal.

Volume imported into Spain directly from Algeria via the Medgaz line was 1.61 TWh, up 11.1% year on year, while volume on the Magreb line, which transits Algerian gas via Morocco, rose 22.1% to 2.37 TWh.

Imports on the Larrau line from France rose 29.9% to 818 GWh.

On the export front, Enagas reported exports to neighboring Portugal, of 717 GWh via the Badajoz link, which compared with exports of 39.4 GWh in the same week last year.

In other data, Enagas said that during the week no gas was withdrawn from the country's gas storage sites, compared with 29.9 GWh in the same week last year.

National upstream production in the week fell 38.0% from the same week last year to 14.5 GWh.

The country's storage sites remained 78.8% full Sunday, with 19.2 TWh of strategic stocks and 1.96 TWh of operational stocks, Enagas said separately Monday.

Elsewhere, the company reported LNG stocks of 10.2 TWh on Sunday, equivalent to 26.2 days' worth of operational demand.