Portugal will return to Russian gas next Friday
The ship is called Vladimir Vize, transports liquefied natural gas (LNG), and is scheduled to arrive in Sines next Friday, March 4th. It will be the first discharge of Russian gas in Portugal in more than three months.
Data from the national gas system REN – Redes Energéticas Nacionais show that the last month in which natural gas from gas received was received in October. In that month, 26.5% of the natural gas imported by Portugal came from Russia, 50.7% from Nigeria, 14.6% from the United States and the remaining 8.2% from Spain.
But in November, December and January Portugal imported nothing from Russia in terms of natural gas, according to information published by REN. The company has not yet made the data available for February, but the official source at REN confirmed data to the Express that also in the month that is now ending there was no gas discharged in Sines.
If for four months the REN terminal was literally seeing ships from other origins than Russia, that will end, with the arrival of Vladimir Vize, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessel that left the port of Sabetta, on the Yamal, Northern Russia, on 23 February.
Data from the Port of Sin indicate that the ship is scheduled to arrive in the early hours of Saturday, February 5, at 0:01 am, but information such as Ve Finder and Marine Traffic say that the Vladimir Vize should arrive in Sines on Friday. , February 4th.
Built in 2018, nearly 300 meters long, this LNG vessel is flagged in Hong Kong. The data from the Port of Sines are silent on the volume of gas transported or on the company that is importing this cargo. According to information collected by the Expressthe importer will be from Naturgy (formerly Gas Natural Fenosa), which the digital newspaper “Eco” has already indicated for days is the only company that has imported Russian gas to Portugal and that intends to maintain this strategy in 2022.
Naturgy was dated in Portugal published by the Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos with the second share of natural gas in November, 14.7% of the volume of gas supplied, just behind Galp’s 54.6%. The third largest gas supplier (by volume) is Endesa, with 14.2% of the market, followed by EDP, with 10.4%. Natur is present mainly in the companies and industries segment.
The owner of Vladimir Vize is a MOL LNG Transport Europe company and the agent of the Portuguese shipping company responsible for the stopover in Portugal is Orey Comércio e Navegação.
It will be the second discharge of liquefied this week in Sines, gas made after Sines-feira arrived at the operational terminal by REN the LNG River Niger, a Bermuda-flagged vessel that arrived in Sines gas from Nigeria, which is today the largest natural gas supplier in Portugal.
Portugal has Nigeria in Nigeria as its largest natural gas supplier, followed by the United States of America (USA), which has a market share in the supply of several countries, and which can further strengthen its exports to Europe within the framework of the search for diversification in the Old Continent.
In 2021, data from REN, Portugal still had a 14.6% contribution from Russia in its gas supply, a weight that increased compared to 8% in 2020 and 3.2% in 2019.
On February 24, the Ministry of the Environment of the Russian side presented a statement that “this is not a supply of supply by Russia that is not potential for the supply of natural gas to Portugal”.
“Portugal currently lives in a scenario of a greater diversity of suppliers of natural gas that it imports and, being the natural gas market global, there are several that can represent a safe and viable alternative to natural gas coming from Russia”, pointed out the same statement.
The Government highlights, 2% of the maintenance capacity, which is currently not high, percent of the treatment capacity, which currently does not exceed the total capacity. of LNG at the Sines terminal and the February and March schedule is taking place as scheduled by the market agents”.