With the work currently being carried out on storage facilities at these terminals and the investment being directed towards underground storage, one of the weakest points in the Spanish gas system is now being tackled.

As already mentioned, the Council of Ministers approved the above mentioned planning document, on 30 May 2008. A brief summary of the final draft is included in our 2007 Report.

• The forecast for total energy consumption in Spain sets more modest targets for 2011 than an earlier planning document. This is due to the factoring in of improved efficiency and energy savings.
• In addition, the estimated figures for demand for natural gas during the period analysed in are lower than were suggested in the final draft of the planning document approved in May 2008.
• It is estimated that demand for natural gas (the evolution of which will bear a close correlation with the demand for electricity) will grow during the period from 2008 to 2016 at an average annual rate of 2.1% on the basis of the efficiency scenario, and 5% on the basis of the scenario known as Technical gas system manager (GTS). Estimated demand in 2016 totals 481 TWh in the efficiency scenario and 639 TWh on the basis of GTS.
• The share taken by natural gas as a percentage of total primary energy consumption will reach 25% by 2016, based on the efficiency scenario, which is the one that this document follows. If the data from the other scenario is used (639 TWh), the share of primary energy taken by natural gas could reach 33.2% by 2016.

The disappearance on 1 July 2008 of tariffs and the distribution companies’ original role in supplying gas was one of the most important events experienced by the gas sector last year. Since that date, natural gas has been supplied to all end customers exclusively by the retailing companies.

It should be remembered that the regulations published in 2007 included Act 12/2007, which modified Hydrocarbon Sector Act 34/1998 in order to bring it into line with European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/55/EC, which sets down common rules for the internal natural gas market. In this same connection, Royal Decree 1,068 of 27 July 2007 was also approved and published, regulating the introduction of last resort supply in the natural gas sector.

One of the consequences of the entry into force of these regulations has been that all end customers are now supplied by retailing companies, a process which, as indicated, came to fruition on 1 July 2008. Customers who chose not to receive their supply from a retailer at a non-tariff price prior to that date (which would, of course, have been a lower price than the officially regulated one) became customers of last resort suppliers (always a retailing company) at a price fixed on the basis of a last resort tariff, the first of which were published in the Official State Gazette of Spain (Order ITC/3861/2007, which established the last resort tariff for the natural gas system for 2008) of 29 December 2007. The period from 1 January to 30 June was a transitional period.