Nearly 100 million cubic metres of natural gas imported to Estonia in January

In January this year, a record 98.9 million cubic metres of natural gas was imported to Estonia. This is 39.5 per cent more than in January last year. The reason behind the growth in consumption was the long cold weather spell in January.

According to Elering’s calculations, the average price of natural gas supplied by Gazprom and imported from Russia to Estonia was 17.71 euros per megawatt-hour in January. At the same time, the average price on the Lithuanian GET Baltic gas exchange rose 26 per cent to 19.93 euros per megawatt hour, as a result of increased demand due to the cold weather. Comparable prices on the Finnish gas exchange Kaasupörssi were in the region of 13.77 – 23.40 euros per megawatt-hour last month.

While gas sellers imported 16.2 million cubic metres of natural gas from Lithuania in December 2015, accounting for 29.4 per cent of total gas imports, January this year saw imports of 5.6 million cubic metres from Lithuania, making up 5.7 per cent of total imports. Baltic Energy Partners, Eesti Energia and Reola Gaas imported gas from Lithuania last month. The remainder of the gas was imported by Eesti Gaas from Russia.

All January imports of natural gas entered Estonia through Karksi, and gas flows ranged from 1.8-5.0 million cubic metres per day. There were no disruptions to the cross-border gas supply reported.

The volume of network services provided by Elering in January was reported to be 98.9 million cubic metres. Of this, the volume of services provided to the largest natural gas distribution network – AS Gaasivõrgud – totalled 76.2 million cubic metres, or 77 per cent of the total volume. The estimated reserve capacity of the transmission pipeline fell by 24 per cent year-on-year to 3.7 million cubic metres. Stocks fell by 5.4 per cent compared with December.

In January, 23.5 million cubic metres of natural gas passed through the transit pipeline located in south-east Estonia from Latvia to Russia. The Inčukalns underground storage facility in Latvia was 53 per cent full at the end of January. 

A full-length summary of January`s gas market and system can be viewed here.