her turn European Union to other countries for purchase natural gasunder the conditions of its weaning from fossil fuels of Russian origin, caused congestion in Mediterranean Sea tankers carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) and unable to unload it. Europe’s decision to become independent of natural gas supplies from Russia has highlighted another major problem: the lack of adequate infrastructure to supply LNG by sea.

According to Reuters, citing analysts and sources, about 35 LNG tankers they roam the seas of Spain to unload. The country of the Iberian Peninsula will provide just six LNG storage and regasification facilities this week. This is about a fifth of the tankers waiting to ship their supplies, and eight of them are waiting in the Gulf of Cadiz. In total, there are six receiving terminals for natural gas in Spain. And since the Old Continent lacks the capacity to convert LNG to gas and the pipelines that could transport the gas overland, transporting it becomes even more difficult. Spain has the largest regasification capacity in the European Union, accounting for 33% of all LNG and 44% of its storage capacity.

The situation becomes even more problematic after yesterday’s announcement by Enagas, which more or less said it would be forced to dump some cargo as the stocks it has exceeded its full capacity. The source told Reuters that the problem with tankers is particularly noticeable in Spain, but the same is happening in the seas of other countries (of course, the problem is less), which means that several dozen tankers are still roaming with cargo in the seas of Spain. Europe. In addition, some shipping companies do not sell the cargo of their ships, believing that the increase in prices will compensate for the additional costs associated with the presence of tankers on the high seas.