Natural Gas Imports from Lithuania Make Up 25 Per Cent of Total July Gas Imports

This July, gas sellers imported 4.4 million cubic metres of natural gas from Lithuania,24.9 per cent of total gas imports.

Last month, Baltic Energy Partners, Eesti Energia, Reola Gaas and Viru Keemia Grupp imported natural gas from Lithuania. The remaining gas was imported from Russia by Eesti Gaas, with most of the supplies entering the country via the Narva border checkpoint due to maintenance work at the Värska border checkpoint. Altogether, 17.6 million cubic metres of natural gas were imported to Estonia last month, which is 1.7 per cent less than in July 2014.

In July, 24.9 per cent of natural gas was imported via Karksi, 1.7 per cent via Värska and 73.4 per cent via Narva. The amount of gas imported to Estonia ranged between 0.2 to 0.9 million cubic metres per twenty-four-hour period.

According to Elering’s calculations, the average price of Gazprom’s natural gas imports to Estonia was 21.81 euros per megawatt-hour. In Lithuania, the average price of natural gas traded on the Get Baltic gas exchange was 18.21 euros per megawatt-hour in July and on the Kaasupörssi gas exchange in Finland, comparable gas prices were in the range of 17.10 to 20.61 euros per megawatt-hour.

In July, natural gas transmission services rendered by Elering totalled 18.5 million cubic metres. Of that, the amount of service rendered to the biggest natural gas distribution network – AS Gaasivõrgud – was 16.1 million cubic metres, totalling 87 per cent. The gas transmission pipeline’s estimated gas reserve increased by 22.9 per cent in a yearly comparison to 3.4 million cubic metres. In comparison with June, the reserve decreased by 17 per cent.

In July, 533.9 million cubic metres of natural gas moved from Russia to Latvia through the gas transit pipeline that passes through southeast Estonia, which is 121 per cent more in a year-on-year comparison. A large growth in transit cannot be considered unusual, because it is more likely to do with the temporal change of filling the Inčukalns underground gas storage facility in Latvia (which last year took place in August and September). 54 per cent of the storage facility was filled by the end of July.

The full report for the gas market of July is available here.