Finland allocates seven summer LNG slots at Inkoo

Regional gas supplier Eesti Gaas has become the first firm to book slots at the Inkoo LNG terminal in Finland, reserving seven for April-September.

System operator Gasgrid Finland originally marketed the slots in mid-December and allocated them in early January, but only announced the results late last week.

Inkoo was commissioned in mid-January, but there were no takers for first-quarter capacity.

While Eesti Gaas is an Estonia-based firm, it operates throughout the Baltic states and Finland, as well as Poland. The firm last week announced its intention to expand its operations in Poland.

Eesti Gaas received five cargoes at Lithuania's 2.9mn t/yr Klaipeda LNG terminal in 2022 and took another in mid-January. It plans to bring two more cargoes to Klaipeda in March.

The unbooked Inkoo slots will be made available on a spot basis "earlier than originally expected", probably in early February, Gasgrid said, adding that it will detail available summer 2023 slots after finishing its scheduling process.

Estonian users switch back to gas

Some firms that had burned alternative fuels are now returning to gas, Eesti Gaas chief executive Margus Kaasik said.

"Several customers on our different markets, who used alternative fuels in the meantime, are already returning to natural gas today," because it is once again cheaper than light heating oil or propane, Kaasik said.

Estonia's economy ministry last year recommended that district heating suppliers unable to obtain enough gas for the heating season prepare to burn locally produced shale oil or diesel.

Estonian utilities Utilitas Tallinn and Enefit Power applied for exemptions that would allow them to burn fuel oil. The exemptions only last until the end of this heating season, and companies are obliged to hold a tender for gas supplies and notify the board of its success or failure, according to Erik Konsenkranius, deputy director-general of Estonia's environmental board. Once they have tendered and been awarded a supply contract, they will be obliged to switch to gas within 10 days, he said.

Rein Vaks, head of the energy department at Estonia's economy ministry, has argued that it would be unreasonable to end the exemptions. If Estonia returns to "consuming as much gas as we want, our gas markets will be unable to cope", he said.

Estonian gas consumption dropped by 25pc in 2022 from a year earlier and was also well below 2020 (see graph).

By Brendan A'Hearn

Estonian monthly consumption 2020-22 GWh