Natural gas import increases 29 per cent in previous month

Natural gas import volumes reached 303 gigawatt-hours in May, which is 29 per cent more than in May 2016.

The lowest daily gas volume to reach Estonia was 4.8 gigawatt-hours, and the highest was 15.2 gigawatt-hours. According to Elering estimates, natural gas supplies from Lithuania made up 6.9 per cent of import volumes.

Elering’s domestic transmission service volume grew year-on-year by 28 per cent and reached a total of 299 gigawatt-hours last month. Growth was due to the inclement weather, which was four degrees cooler than a year ago. The transmission pipeline’s volumetric capacity decreased by four per cent year-on-year, totalling 50 gigawatt-hours at the end of the month.

In May this year, gas volumes transmitting through the south-east Estonian natural gas pipeline from Russia to Latvia totalled 595 gigawatt-hours. In May 2016, a total volume of 429 gigawatt-hours moved from Latvia to Russia.

On the Lithuanian GET Baltic gas exchange, the average price for gas last month was 19.48 euros per megawatt-hour. The comparative price on the Finnish Kaasupörssi exchange was 19.89 euros per megawatt-hour.

In May, a total of 57 gigawatt-hours of gas was pumped out of the Inčukalns underground gas storage facility in Latvia. The facility was at 15.3 per cent of its total capacity at the end of the month.

According to May’s preliminary balance sheets, the shares of the balance providers’ portfolios based on consumption totalled the following: