Taking into account the geopolitical situation in Europe, Latvia’s natural gas transmission and storage operator Conexus Baltic Grid has taken the necessary actions to avoid energy supply risks both in its country and the region as a whole.
According to the company’s unaudited financial statements for the first three months of 2022, the Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage (UGS) facility stored a record 7.6 terawatt-hours (TWh) of natural gas.
“Our priority at this time is to increase energy security in order to minimise risks in the areas of natural gas transmission and storage,” said Uldis Bariss, Chairman of the Management Board of Conexus. “Therefore, in response to the changing geopolitical situation, we took swift decisions to facilitate the faster build-up of natural gas stocks at the Inčukalns underground gas storage facility, including the start of physical gas injection already at the end of February.”
Other than starting injecting natural gas already on 27 February, during the storage withdrawal season, another reason why Conexus could build up the gas stock is related to higher temperatures in the winter months and to a two-thirds drop in electricity generation at the country’s largest thermal power plants which made the volume of natural gas transported to fall by 11 per cent. This has allowed a reduction in the amount of natural gas withdrawn from Inčukalns UGS and 6.8 TWh of natural gas was withdrawn in the first three months of 2022.
