Connection conditions and legislation

Regulations:

• Natural Gas Act
• Network Rules for the Functioning of the Gas Market (in Estonian)
• “Conditions for Connection to the Gas Transmission Network of Elering AS” (in Estonian) (valid 13 February 2026, approved by Elering Management Board Decision No. 12-1/2026).
• “Methodology for calculating the connection fee to the natural gas transmission network and the fee for changing consumption and production conditions.pdf”  (approved by the Competition Authority Decision No. 7-10/2017-017 of 3 November 2017).
• "Conditions for one-time connection to the Elering AS gas transmission network in Pakrineeme 2025.07.01.pdf" (valid 1 July 2025, approved by Elering Management Board Decision No. 51-4/2025)

Elering established new conditions for connecting to the gas transmission network and separate connection conditions for short-term connection at the Pakrineeme connection point, not to the terminal.

In 2023, Elering conducted a public consultation to establish changes to the conditions for connecting to the Elering AS gas transmission network, which specified the regulation for connecting to the floating terminal at the Pakrineeme connection point and the technical principles for connecting in the production direction in the gas transmission network.

Based on the feedback provided by market participants, Elering developed separate connection conditions "Standard conditions for one-time connection to the Elering AS gas transmission network in Pakrineeme", based on which it is possible to connect to the Pakrineeme connection point with an alternative long-term connection to a floating terminal also with a gas transport vessel with regasification capability, which does not provide terminal services and only the maximum amount of gas agreed in the contract is injected into the transmission network during the time period provided for this. To establish the connection conditions, Elering conducted a public consultation in 2024 and Elering allowed market participants to submit additional comments and proposals from 10.03.2025 to 19.03.2025.

As of the beginning of 2025, a large amount of consumption capacity had been reserved in the gas transmission network with valid consumption-oriented connection applications and valid connection offers issued, after which Elering was unable to issue economically viable connection offers due to extensive network reinforcement work. To resolve the situation, Elering conducted an additional public consultation from 14.04 to 29.04 to amend the conditions for connecting to the Elering AS gas transmission network. In order to issue economically viable connection offers, the current connection fee payment proportions were changed, which essentially fulfill the function of a guarantee obligation and limit the long-term booking of capacity in the transmission network. Since this occured situation does not apply to injection capacity, Elering conducted a public consultation from 16.01.2026 to 30.01.2026 to ammend the connection conditions and differentiate consumption and injection connection fee payment proportions. The ammended connection conditions are valid since 13.02.2026. 

More detailed information about the subscription terms and conditions that came into effect on 01.07.2025 can be found here:

Overview of Elering AS gas connection conditions starting from 01.07.2025.pdf