Natural gas imports increased in February

Last month, the volume of natural gas imports increased by 4.65 per cent in a year-on-year comparison, reaching 64.81 million cubic metres. The increase was influenced by somewhat colder weather conditions compared to last year.

The smallest amount of natural gas that reached Estonia over a twenty-four-hour period was 1.43 million cubic metres and the largest amount was 3.72 million cubic metres. In Elering’s estimation, natural gas shipped from Lithuania totalled 4.39 per cent of the imports.

In February, the amount of domestic transmission service rendered by Elering increased by 6.22 per cent in a year-on-year comparison, amounting to 64.94 million cubic metres. The reserve capacity of the transmission pipeline increased by 12 per cent in a yearly calculation, and stood at 4.91 million cubic metres by the end of the month.

In February, gas transit took place in the direction of Latvia to Russia through the gas transit pipeline that passes through southeast Estonia, to a total of 0.92 million cubic metres. A year ago, the amount of transit in the same direction was 76.17 million cubic metres.

The average price of natural gas traded on the Lithuanian GET Baltic gas exchange was 20.93 euros per megawatt-hour last month. The average price on the Finnish Kaasupörssi was 20.85 euros per megawatt-hour.

In February, 183.7 million cubic metres of natural gas were extracted from the Inčukalns underground gas storage facility in Latvia. 26.3 per cent of the capacity of the storage facility was reached by the end of the month.