Elering and the European Commission signed the second part of the co-financing agreement for Balticconnector

Elering and the European Commission signed the second part of the co-financing agreement for the Balticconnector gas connection, the objective of which is to enhance the capacity of the gas connection in the Latvian direction and making it bi-directional.

According to Chairman of the Elering Board, Taavi Veskimägi, the whole financing arrangement was most certainly set by signing the second part of the Balticconnector co-financing agreement. “The 287 million euros in financing for the whole project is now in place and in 2017 we can start with actual construction work in the direction of Latvia and on the Kiili-Pakrineeme route. This will enable the connection to be completed by 2020,” he added.

The total cost of the Balticconnector is 287 million euros. 37 million of this will be spent on enhancing the connection between Estonia and Latvia, which will ensure utilisation of the full capacity of Balticconnector. The European Commission’s co-financing rate for the two stages of Balticconnector is 72 per cent. The national contribution is split equally between Estonia and Finland.

The second stage of Balticconnector will include reconstruction of the Karksi natural gas measuring station, construction on the Lilli pipeline intersection near the Estonian-Latvian border and a gas compressor station in the area of Puiatu.

The necessity to reconstruct the Karksi measuring station arises from a European Union regulation that demands the bi-directional movement of gas between member states and from the need to increase the capacity of the Estonian-Latvian gas connection from the current seven million cubic metres to 10 million cubic metres per twenty-four-hour period.

Karksi gas measuring station will be reconstructed in order to make it fully automatic and remotely controllable, and devices to regulate output volume and pressure will be installed. At present, this measuring station can only transport gas from Latvia to Estonia. The new Lilli pipeline intersection will enable control of the movement of gas flows between countries. According to the current plan, the Karksi gas measuring station and Lilli pipeline intersection will be completed by the end of 2018.

The compressor station to be constructed near Puiatu in Viljandi County is necessary for international gas transportation. It can be used for gas transmission in the Latvian-Estonian-Finnish direction and vice versa. The compressor working in the Latvian-Estonian-Finnish direction will ensure maximum capacity for Balticconnector. When the gas moves from Finland to Latvia via Estonia, the primary task for the Puiatu compressor station is to ensure sufficient pressure in the pipeline to inject the gas into the underground gas storage facility in Inčukalns, Latvia. The Puiatu gas compressor station is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019.