Jānis Kalējs, Head of the Latvijas Gāze Wholesale Department, took part in the forum and spoke about the availability of natural gas in the next heating season and the insufficiency of LNG infrastructure for reliable gas supply in the region in the upcoming winter: "Currently, the regasification capacity of the Klaipeda LNG terminal is fully booked until the end of this year. What the Baltic gas market is facing today is not a scarcity of resources, but a lack of infrastructure needed to fully meet the region's LNG needs. It is possible to buy a shipload of LNG, but technically there is nowhere to unload it. Even if an additional LNG terminal is built in the region before next winter, the regasification capacity would not be sufficient for peak day consumption. Also, according to the transmission system operators' data, it can be seen that through the just opened Poland-Lithuania interconnector, gas flows are going towards Poland and account for about 20% of the current regasification capacity of the Klaipeda LNG terminal, and in June this proportion of natural gas flowing towards the Polish market will already be about 40%."
During the presentation, Jānis Kalējs also presented estimates of natural gas consumption and gas flows in the region at the beginning of May and various possible scenarios that raise serious concerns about the sufficiency of natural gas in the region in the coming months and in the coming winter. "There are a lot of unanswered questions at the moment, but it is clear that even with two fully operational LNG terminals in the region, it is not possible to meet the required consumption demand during next winter's peak days. Either we need to find solutions to sufficiently pump gas into storage during the pumping season, or we need to be prepared for emergencies next winter," says Jānis Kalējs.
The Forum was attended by representatives of the Baltic regulators, natural gas transmission operators Conexus Baltic Grid, Amber Grid, natural gas traders Latvijas Gāze, Ignitis, Eesti Gaas, Suomen Kaasueenergia Oy, as well as a representative of GET Baltic.
