Elering purchased one month’s consumption volume of natural gas as stocks for protected customers

This week, Elering entered into contracts with Latvijas Gaze and Eesti Gaas for the acquisition of natural gas as stocks that are sufficient for supplying protected customers with natural gas for one month during the peak winter consumption period.

“Increasing the stocks required for covering Estonian natural gas consumption is one of the three pillars of defence for ensuring uninterrupted natural gas supply to consumers next winter if the Russian natural gas supply was to be interrupted,” said Taavi Veskimägi, Chairman of the Management Board of Elering. “In addition to acquiring stocks for protected customers, we have suggested a proposal to the state for creating a national stock of natural gas similarly to the liquid fuel stockpile belonging to the state. These stocks give us sufficient time to implement alternative solutions for natural gas supply or replace natural gas with other fuels without causing any interruptions to consumers in the case of any interruptions in supply,” added Veskimägi.

“In addition to increasing the stocks, Elering is working on a second pillar of defence with the state and the market participants in order to create a solution that would ensure the equal treatment of all consumers in Finland and the Baltic States upon any interruptions in supply, while the third significant pillar of defence is elaborating the possibility for creating an additional LNG-based chain of natural gas supply connecting Finland, Latvia and Estonia,” said Veskimägi.

Previously, Elering has entered into contracts pursuant to which the partner was supposed to ensure the supply of the agreed volume of natural gas upon such necessity when acquiring the stocks for protected customers; however, to increase the security of supply in these difficult times, Elering has now decided to purchase the stocks of natural gas for protected customers.

Under the two contracts, Elering purchased 105 gigawatt-hours of natural gas, paying a total of 10.7 million euros. The natural gas is stored in an underground natural gas storage facility in Latvia. The stocks for protected customers are used when there are interruptions in supply on the natural gas market and natural gas sellers are unable to perform their obligations towards consumers of natural gas.

Pursuant to the Natural Gas Act, protected customers are household consumers and undertakings who produce heat for heating dwellings and for whom it is impossible to use any other fuel than natural gas.