Spanish PVB gas prices fall further in April, remain cheapest in Europe

Natural gas prices on the Spanish PVB hub dropped further in April, with Spain remaining the cheapest of the main European gas markets.

The Platts-assessed PVB price for day-ahead delivery averaged Eur36.46/MWh in April, down 13.2% from Eur41.99/MWh in March, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights.

Year on year, day-ahead prices were down Eur59.95/MWh from an average price of Eur87.414/MWh in April 2022.

For month-ahead delivery, Platts assessments averaged Eur36.697/MWh in April, down 13.4% from Eur42.373/MWh in March, and plummeting 58.2% year on year from the Eur87.82/MWh in April 2022, S&P Global data showed.

The falls meant Spain remained the lowest-priced of Europe's natural gas hubs, which all averaged above the Eur40/MWh threshold for both day-ahead and month-ahead in April.

Pipeline exports from Spain totaled 664 milion cu m in April, increasing 56% on the month and 41% on the year, with particularly high deliveries to France.

Reverse flows started in March amid a wave of strikes that impacted activities at French LNG terminals, and surged in April. Spain exported 586 million cu m of gas to France, up more than 90% from 308 million cu m exported in March, and 27% more than the 463 million cu m reported in April 2022.

Exports to Portugal were extremely low, totaling at just 2 million cu m compared to the 41 million cu m exported in March.

Spanish end-user demand -- which includes LDZ and gas-for-power demand -- was 12% on the year and 17% year on year to 2.1 Bcm in April. LDZ demand alone fell 20% on the month and 13% on the year.

Storage injections picked up strongly to 235 million cu m, up from just 9 million cu m in March and well above the 159 million cu m injected in April 2022.

Overall, gas demand in Spain remained stable, totaling 3 Bcm in April, edging up 0.6% from March and down 0.5% compared with April 2022.

Gas supplies totaled 3.1 Bcm, slightly higher compared with 3 Bcm both in March 2023 and in April 2022.

With the end of the winter season, storage withdrawals plummeted to 7 million cu m in April, down sharply from 103 million cu m the previous month.

Spanish gas storages were 89.6% full as of April 30, according to data from the Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory, the third highest level among EU countries, after Portugal and Sweden.

Overall pipeline imports totaled at 721 million cu m in April, up from the 667 million cu m in March but down compared with the 855 million cu m registered a year earlier.

There were no pipeline imports from France into Spain in April, in line with data from the previous year. In March, Spain imported 69 million cu m of gas from France.

LNG regasification totaled 2.4 Bcm in April, up 4% on the month and 8% on the year.