Baltic countries facing fall with half empty gas storage facility
VILNIUS. Sept 5 (Interfax/BNS) - While Germany is filling its gas storage facilities faster than planned, the Baltic countries are seeing the opposite trend, with reserves in the region's only gas storage facility, in Incukalns Latvia, falling below 50%, Lithuanian business news website vz.lt reported.
Underground gas storage (UGS) facilities in Europe are now a little more than 80% full on average, while at Incukalns the figure fell below 49.7% at the start of the last month of the gas year.
The whole Baltic region and Finland are left with one source of gas supply, which is operating at maximum capacity and providing for both current natural gas consumption in the whole region and storage, vz.lt said, commenting on the situation at Lithuania's largest gas importer, the Achema fertilizer plant.
A spokesman for the plant said that high electricity prices that led to the launch of gas-fired power plants further increased current gas consumption in the region, leaving no gas for storage.
Lithuania's Energy Ministry did not respond to questions regarding the reasons for the situation and the security of gas supplies for the coming winter, vz.lt said.
The three Baltic countries and Finland, with combined annual gas consumption of about 6 billion cubic meters, also depend on supplies from the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Klaipeda, Lithuania, which can provide up to 3.8 bcm per year.
Lithuanian state energy company Ignitis said that, while the overall level of reserves at Incukalns is lower, Ignitis's reserves are significantly greater than the company has stored up in recent years, vz.lt reported. There will be enough gas for Ignitis business customers and residents of Lithuania, the company said.
The operator of Lithuania's gas transmission system, Amber Grid said that there will be enough gas for Lithuania's needs during the cold period of the year. Lithuania has direct access to the LNG market, a steadily operating LNG terminal in Klaipeda and the country's largest gas consumer, Achema is shut down at the moment, the company said.
Amber Grid said that part of the gas from the LNG terminal is sent daily to the Incukalns storage facility in Latvia, so it is constantly being filled. Although the level of reserves in storage seems low in percentage terms, the amount, equivalent to 12 TWh, is quite substantial given the whole region's consumption during the winter months, the company said, adding that Latvia recently expanded the technical capacity of the storage facility by several TWh, so the level of reserves as a percentage of capacity is also lower for this reason.
Even if Achema restarted one production line, monthly gas consumption in Lithuania would amount to only about half of the amount of regasification at the Klaipeda LNG terminal, and even if both of the plant's lines were operating there would not be a gas shortage in the country, Amber Gold said.
Furthermore, Lithuanian suppliers also store gas at Incukalns, so there will also be gas coming into Lithuania from the Latvian storage facility in winter, the company said.
In addition, a joint Finnish-Estonian LNG terminal is expected to go into operation in December.
Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins said on Latvian television that the country will have enough gas. Latvijas gaze is a state supplier and is obligated to supply households, but if they refuse, are unable to or have problems meeting these obligations, this service will be provided by state company Latvenergo and Conexus, he said.