Good morning. Well, it's a pleasure to be with the entire sector once again at the Sedigas annual meeting, another year in which we have once again encountered all kinds of events. I don't know if we will ever have a boring year in our sector. I would say probably not. Certainly this one has not been. It is a year in which we have faced vicissitudes of all kinds. The latest of them, this crisis in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, is putting pressure on all actors in the global energy system. But as has been well said in the interventions that preceded me, this has been happening almost systematically in recent years since COVID, certainly since February 22 with the invasion of Ukraine, the electrical zero, we have suffered increasingly frequent extreme weather events of all kinds, and in all those moments what we have seen is that the gas system is a strategic asset for security of supply in Spain and in Europe. I would say for security itself. I think the key word that allows us to interpret all this and without any doubt the key word in Europe is resilience.
That is, how we are capable of having an infrastructure that has the capacity to respond and the capacity to absorb impacts. We are demonstrating this systematically and we are seeing how the gas infrastructure is a strategic strength for Spain. It is resilience that is allowing us to cope with very significant increases in demand. Last year we had a total demand increase of 7.4%. That is a very, very significant figure, and it is also this resilience that is allowing us to respond to the current situation in a year 2026 in which not a single molecule of gas from the Persian Gulf has reached Spain. Certainly, it is not doing so now, but it also did not do so between January 1 and February 28 of this year. We have such diversification of supply sources that we can cope better than others with these turbulent global waters that we have to navigate. This is very important for Spain, but it is very important for Europe. Spain has a systemic role within the European gas system. An expression of this is the fact that currently our underground storage facilities have a fill level of 66% compared to 35% on average in Europe. An expression of this is also that Spain represents 27% of all regasification capacity in Europe and 37% of all LNG storage capacity in tanks. This idea is very important. Almost 40% of all LNG stored in tanks in Europe is in the Spanish gas system. And this, I believe, is very relevant. This resilience of our system is also key to advancing in the fight against climate change and in the decarbonization objectives with renewable gases and with the use of gas and LNG for new purposes, such as, for example, the decarbonization of maritime transport. Moreover, we are doing this in an outstandingly efficient and competitive way. Thanks to this, in Spain we have the cheapest tolls in Europe. It is very important to say this. It is very important to say that during the current regulatory period, tolls for domestic consumers have fallen by 40% and for industrial consumers by 70%. It is very important to remember that between 2022 and 2024, the gas system generated a surplus of 800 million euros. And it is very important to remember that since February 24, 2022, when the invasion of Ukraine began, the reference price of gas in Spain has been on average 6% lower than the European TTF and 11.3% lower than the Italian PSV. And this is a key competitiveness factor for our economy. Thanks to this, as we have recalled on some occasions, Spain benefited from a comparative discount with the prices paid in Europe in its gas bill between 2022 and 2024 of 10 billion euros. The corollary of these data is that when we depend on energy sources from third countries, the only way to be competitive is to be diversified and have a robust infrastructure. And this is a message that we must always keep in mind.
I was saying that perhaps the word that best defines the Spanish gas system is resilience, but it is also very important to remember that resilience is never the result of chance, good luck, or improvisation. Resilience is built day by day with anticipation so that when difficult times come, we have that capacity to absorb impacts and that capacity to respond. And the Spanish gas system has many strengths, but it also has to face headwinds, because we are facing an increasing number of extreme weather events that complicate and make the management of the system more expensive, and because we have a gas system whose reference infrastructures are not just getting older, they are getting decades older. And the largest regasification plant in southern Europe, which is the Barcelona plant, was inaugurated in 1969 and has turned 57 years old. This is also very important to keep in mind because to maintain this gas system in perfect condition, we need adequate planning, regulation, and financing.
We also need other things. We need and it has just been mentioned that the directives be transposed, the RED III directive, that the decarbonized gas and hydrogen package be transposed, that this Royal Decree on Biomethane be completed, but it is also necessary to mention the proposal for transport and regasification circulars, as our president has done. Likewise, I want to highlight, as he has said, that it is a proposal that seems to us technically robust, that begins to align us with the reference regulations in Europe, but I also believe it is necessary to say that it seems to us that it is not sufficient and that we believe it should incorporate some improvements. For example, we believe it is striking that our transport and regasification activity experiences a 10% reduction in its average revenues in the new period compared to the current period. It is difficult to justify that when gas and electricity activities are financed and refinanced in the same financial markets, the gas activity has a lower financial rate of return than the electricity one. It seems difficult to justify that the operating margins contemplated for our activity are far below those considered usual in comparable activities. It seems essential to us to incentivize more clearly and more forcefully the extension of the useful life of our infrastructures, because the alternative is what other regulatory systems in Europe do, which is that when an infrastructure reaches the end of its useful life, it is replaced by a new one, while what is necessary and efficient for the system is to incentivize the extension of the useful life of these infrastructures that, as I say, are already getting decades old, and it seems to us that the remuneration with the financial rate of return of 10% of the replacement cost is not sufficient.
Therefore, it seems very important to us that in this final phase of approval of the circulars, we maintain this relationship, this constructive dialogue based on technical data and on elements of comparability with other European regulatory systems. Resilience is strengthened with gas infrastructures in perfect condition, as said, but resilience is also strengthened with the promotion and encouragement of renewable gases, which are indigenous energy sources. It has already been said, but it is necessary to remember. With respect to biomethane, we are working with all the actors represented here to accelerate and give maximum impetus to the connection of biomethane to the grid. From Enagás Transporte, we are establishing clear and predictable standards to respond to requests. We have established a new OpenBook model for connection contracts. We are introducing improvements in our web platform with new functionalities for tracking requests, specific commercial service mailboxes, telematic signing of contracts, all those other improvements that you think we can address. Do not hesitate to let us know. From the technical system operator, we are promoting a large number of projects. We have already made viable 273 biomethane connection projects and we have many more still in process. We have also launched working groups to optimize gas quality, taking into account the needs of consumers, but also the maximization of biomethane injection into the system. As for hydrogen, I have said it on other occasions, we have an absolutely unique opportunity for our country, for our territories, for our industry and our consumers. Green hydrogen and its infrastructures are the great energy shield of Europe for the coming decades to face the geopolitical and geostrategic turbulence that will continue to arise. To be very brief, you know that we are concluding the public participation plan for the Troncal network. We are concluding in Catalonia, we will do so in Murcia, and with that we will finalize the 13 autonomous communities that these 2,600 km of pipelines run through. And we are also carrying out the public participation of the BarMar, a binational public consultation between Spain and France that has few precedents in Europe and that I believe is also going with a very positive tone. The infrastructures are advancing to be deployed and enter operation between 2030 and 2032. And you know that to capture the maturity and progress that are being made, we have launched a new call for interest, both for hydrogen infrastructures and for CO2 infrastructures.
I conclude now. The gas system and renewable gases will be two elements that will allow this resilience that the Spanish economy needs in times of geopolitical complexity and extreme events to consolidate and project into the future. I would like to end with this equation that we can all keep in mind: gas system plus renewable gases equals resilience for Spain and its consumers. I am sure that all the actors, led by Sedigas, will continue to play this key role to be up to the circumstances and the needs of society and Spanish consumers. Thank you very much.
