Eesti Gaas using storage facilities in Poland and Germany for first time
In addition to the underground gas storage in Latvia, during the current heating season, Eesti Gaas has for the first time also begun storing gas in Poland and Germany. According to Margus Kaasik, chair of Eesti Gaas' management board, the company operates from the Arctic Circle up to the border with Germany and therefore also uses storage facilities in several countries.
Kaasik noted that for the foreseeable future, during heating seasons, renewable energy forms will still need to be bolstered by gas, and that on the coldest days, half of Estonia's energy will come from gas. The gas stored in Polish and German facilities is intended to supply customers in those countries but could be brought to Estonia in case of emergency.
"Certainly from Europe, if needed. Today, we can see that there are now two LNG terminals in our regio, in Inkoo and Klaipeda. At the moment their capacity is quite sufficient to supply the market here, there is even some left over. Gas storage in Latvia is full or close to being full. There is no sign of a gas shortage in our region, but the Lithuanian-Polish connection is functioning well and gas can be imported from there. However, it is more expensive to bring gas from there and that is why we are not importing it here [to Estonia] at the moment," Kaasik said.
"At the moment, we use storage facilities in Latvia, Poland and Germany as well as sell gas from there. We have end-customers from Finland to Poland and trading activities in Germany," Kaasik added.
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Editor: Marko Tooming, Michael Cole