According to Enagas, Algeria restored its position as Spain’s top natural gas supplier in January by meeting 25% of the nation’s monthly demand.

The Maghred-Europe pipeline was shut down in the last quarter of 2021, and the “treaty of friendship, good neighbourliness, and cooperation” that Algeria signed with Spain in 2002 was reportedly stopped last as a result of Spain’s public acknowledgement of Morocco’s proposal for the disputed region of Western Sahara.

Algeria has long been Spain’s top natural gas supplier. However, in January last year, the United States overtook Algeria as the two countries’ relations deteriorated.

Sonatrach of Algeria and Naturgy of Spain amended the 2022 natural gas prices in October, but they postponed discussions of the 2023 prices. Sonatrach supplies Spain with around 5 billion cubic metres of gas annually, according to estimates from Reuters from last October, following agreements made decades ago. The contracts have periodic price reviews, and they are still in effect after this decade.

Despite withdrawing its ambassador from Madrid in June as tensions rose, Algeria agreed to uphold its contractual responsibilities to sell gas to Spain.

According to Enagas data, the Medgaz pipeline carried 8545 GWh of the total gas sent to Spain last month from Algeria. The United States provided 20.7% of Spain’s natural gas in January, with Nigeria coming in third with 20.2% of the country’s total supply—all of it LNG.

The number of ships loading LNG in Spain and sailing to Europe doubled in 2018 compared to 2021, according to a recent Enagas analysis. Spain now has six LNG terminals, and a seventh is on the way.