The entire transmission capacity for the gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland at the disposal of the market was used up in January, the Estonian transmission grid operator Elering said.

"The launch of the Balticconnector illustrates the successful functioning of the Estonia-Latvia-Finland joint gas market. At the launch of the pipeline many had doubts about its necessity, but January clearly demonstrated the necessity of the interconnection for enabling the gas accumulated in the underground storage facility in Latvia to move to Finland," Elering CEO Taavi Veskimagi said.

Natural gas that moved to Finland via Balticconnector covered more than one-third of Finland's domestic demand in January, with the rest of the gas consumed in Finland entering the country from Russia via Imatra. Via that connection, 1,687 GWh of natural gas reached Finland during the month.

The amount of gas that moved via Balticconnector during the month exceeded Estonia's domestic consumption. From the gas transmission network managed by Elering 565 GWh of gas reached the distribution networks for consumption. At companies connected with the distribution networks some 5 gigawatt-hours of gas was produced.

Balticconnector is an international gas interconnection established at the initiative of the transmission system operators of Estonia and Finland. The total cost of the Balticconnector cluster is approximately €300 million with the European Union providing over €200 million in funding for the project.

--

Download the ERR News app for Android and iOS now and never miss an update!