Natural gas imports amount to 22 million cubic metres in May

In May, 22.42 million cubic metres of natural gas were imported to Estonia, which was 21.2 per cent less than at the same time last year.

The quantity of gas imported from Lithuania totalled 2.1 million cubic metres in May, making up 9.5 per cent of total imports. The rest of the gas was purchased from Gazprom and supplied from the Latvian underground reserve.  

The average price on the Lithuanian GET Baltic gas exchange was 16.57 euros per megawatt-hour in May. On the Finnish Kaasupörssi gas exchange, comparable prices were between 12.34 and 14.14 euros per megawatt-hour last month.

All natural gas imported in May entered Estonia via Karksi, and gas quantities ranged between 0.52 and 1.03 million cubic metres per day. No disruptions in cross-border gas supplies were reported.

The volume of natural gas network services rendered by Elering in May totalled 22.29 million cubic metres. Of this, the volume of services rendered to the largest natural gas distribution network, AS Gaasivõrgud, totalled 19.2 million cubic metres, or 86 per cent of the total volume.

The estimated gas pipeline reserve capacity grew 16.4 per cent year-on-year to 4.9 million cubic metres. In comparison with April, reserve capacity grew by less than one per cent.

In May, 40.76 million cubic metres of gas passed through the southeast Estonian transit pipeline from Latvia to Russia. The Inčukalns underground storage reservoir in Latvia was filled to 12.6 per cent of its capacity at the end of May.