Latvia Mulls Options for Baltic Gas Facility
Latvia to liberalise gas market next April. A number of companies, including Germany's Open Grid Europe (OGE), are considering buying a stake in Latvia's future gas grid and storage operator Conexus Baltic Grid, the country's economy minister said. Latvia's gas utility Latvijas Gaze is set to transfer part of its assets - including one of Europe's largest underground gas storage facilities, Incukalns - to Conexus ahead of a planned market liberalisation next April.
Latvia and Lithuania to Work on Developing a Gas Market
Latvia and Lithuania have agreed to work on developing a gas market, committing to provide participants with access to infrastructure, a memorandum signed on Friday showed. Lithuania opened a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in 2014 and started exporting natural gas to neighbouring Estonia earlier this year, breaking the supply monopoly of Russia's Gazprom. "By signing the memorandum of understanding, both the countries commit to work together to encourage the entry of new gas suppliers in the market…
Latvia Says Plans to Split Gas Monopoly in 2017
Latvia's government finalised on Tuesday a plan to split its natural gas monopoly Latvijas Gaze to boost competition, in line with European Union rules, and said it would be completed in 2017. The plan sets the Baltic states on a collision course with its sole gas supplier, Russia's Gazprom, which has a 34 percent stake in Latvijas Gaze, a gas sales, transportation and storage business. Germany's E.ON is seeking to sell its 47.2 percent stake in Latvijas Gaze, but the sale process has been stalled by uncertainty about the Latvian utility's future.
Latvia's Gas Utility CEO to Step Down After 26 Years
Latvian gas utility Latvijas Gaze's chief executive will step down in August after 27 years, the company said on Friday. Adrians Davis, 73, took up the post in 1989, two years before the Baltic state split from the former Soviet Union, and kept the job after the utility was privatized in 1997 and Latvia joined the European Union in 2004. "His (Davis) term expires. Although he was put forward as a candidate, he doesn't agree to run for another term," Latvijas Gaze's spokesman Vinsents Makaris said.
Latvian Gas Utility Opposes Govt's Restructuring Plan
Latvia's gas utility Latvijas Gaze, partly owned by Russia's Gazprom, is opposing restructuring plans approved by the Baltic state's government, the company said on Wednesday. The government said on March 3 that it wanted to split Latvijas Gaze by the beginning of 2017 and to implement ownership unbundling from April 2017, meaning that Gazprom, as gas supplier, would have to sell its stake in the gas transportation and storage business. The unbundling was proposed by the government in an effort to open its gas market for competition.
Latvia to Split its Natural Gas Utility in Early 2017
Latvia's government agreed on Tuesday to split its natural gas utility Latvijas Gaze in two at the beginning of 2017 as a step towards gas market liberalization. "The government took a very important decision today, which will ensure both safe gas supplies as well as better prices for our consumers," Economy Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola told reporters after a cabinet meeting. According to the plan Latvijas Gaze would be split into two companies, one to sell gas and operate a distribution grid and the other to transport and store gas.
Latvia's Gas Utility Sales Volumes Fall in 2014
Latvia's gas utility Latvijas Gaze sold 10.9 percent less natural gas imported from Russia in 2014 than a year before, the company said on Wednesday. Sales fell to 1.3 billion cubic metres (bcm) due to warmer weather and as more gas was switched for woodchips for heating, the company said when reporting its full-year results. Germany's E.ON wants to sell its 47.2 percent stake in the Latvian utility, which is 34 percent owned by Russia's Gazprom. The Russian firm is the sole supplier of gas to the Baltic country.
Lithuanian LNG Importer Inks Latvia Transit Deal
Lithuania's Litgas has signed a natural gas transit deal with Latvian grid operator Latvijas Gaze to ensure shipments to Estonia, the company said on Friday. Litgas has a contract with Norway's Statoil to buy 500 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas per year via an LNG import terminal which opened in Lithuania last year. "Our transit agreement is an important step towards a common and liberalised natural gas market in the Baltic countries," said Dominykas Tuckus, general manager of Litgas.
Estonia Sidesteps Russia with Lithuanian Gas
Estonia imported its first natural gas from Lithuania, via Latvia, last week in a move which reduces its energy dependence on Russia, Latvia's gas grid operator Latvijas Gaze said on Monday. The amount of gas was small but it was an important test for an import procedure side-stepping Russia's Gazprom, which has until recently enjoyed a supply monopoly in the region. Lithuania still imports much of its gas from Russia but has moved to diversify via a liquefied natural gas port.
Latvian Logistics May Slow Baltic Gas Market
The Baltic states' ambitions to replace Russian pipeline gas with liquefied natural gas and create a tradable market are unlikely to come to fruition until 2017 or later because of restricted access to the region's sole gas storage site. Lithuania is due to import the first commercial LNG cargo by tanker from Norway at the end of December. Its president has said that LNG could meet about 90 percent of Baltic gas needs in the future. Until Lithuania can gain untrammelled access to storage and pipelines across the Baltics and establish a tradable regional market…
Lithuania Wants Speedier Gas Market Reforms in Latvia
State-owned Lithuanian firms are seeking to buy a majority stake in the country's gas utility company Latvijas Gaze to speed up market reforms to fully benefit from new liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, the energy minister said. Two state-owned firms, Lietuvos Energija and EPSO-G, submitted non-binding bids to buy a 47.2 percent stake in Latvijas Gaze from Germany's E.ON in September. "Yes, they are taking part (in the tender)," Energy Minister Rokas Masiulis told Reuters on Monday.
Latvia Drops Bid to Buy E.ON's Gas Utility Stake
Latvia's government has abandoned talks to buy a 47.2 percent stake in Latvian gas utility Latvijas Gaze from Germany's E.ON, the country's prime minister said in a television interview on Tuesday. Latvia submitted a non-binding offer to buy shares from the German utility in September, after E.ON sold its stakes in gas utilities in neighbouring Lithuania and Estonia this year. Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma told the public broadcaster the price was too high. "We cannot continue talking about this process further," Straujuma said.
Latvia Plans to Boost Gas Storage Capacity
Latvia plans to increase capacity at the Incukalns underground gas storage site, the only gas storage in the Baltic states, to 2.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) by 2025, gas utility Latvijas Gaze said on Friday. The Incukalns site currently holds up to 2.3 bcm of gas, enough to meet two year's of Latvia's consumption. But the gas from Incukalns is also used by neighbouring Estonia, Russia and Lithuania. Poland may also tap the storage facility in the future if it builds a gas link to Lithuania.
