On the first trading day, Finland's gas came from the Incukalns storage facility in Latvia, from where gas distributors supply it to their Finnish customers.

While in the past, transmission fees needed to be paid for the transfer of gas between countries, now the gas flows through the Estonian-Latvian-Finnish common market without costs for market participants. In order to maintain the gas network, a transmission fee is payable only if the gas enters or leaves the common market. 

This is the first three-country gas market area in Europe.

To ensure the smooth functioning of the market in the new structure, the gas system operators Elering, Conexus Baltic Grid from Latvia and Gasgrid Finland, formed a joint market monitoring group. System operators will continue to work together to further develop the regional gas market over the coming years.

The gas flow on the first trading day covered the current transmission capacity of the newly completed Estonian-Finnish gas interconnector Balticconnector, Elering said.

Chairman of the Board of Elering Taavi Veskimägi said: "The launch of the common market has already significantly activated cross-border gas trade between countries. Consumers and the region's economy can only gain from more competition. The result of the first trading day of the single market unequivocally confirms that the establishment of the Balticconnector has been the right decision, despite widespread skepticism over the necessity of the market in recent years."

The annual volume of the gas market in Finland, Estonia, and Latvia is approximately 40 terawatt-hours. 

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