Page 8 - EurOil Week 11 2023

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil

Finnish gas system pushed to

brink of state of alarm

FINLAND FINLAND’S transmission system operator capacity available in a scarcity situation,” the
(TSO) Gasgrid Finland was near to declaring TSO explained.
Finland lost its Russian a state of alarm and restricting supply to some Physical gas flow from Estonia to Finland
gas supply last year. users in February 20-22, the company reported reached the maximum capacity of 60 GWh per
last week. The crisis was averted with the help of day in the February 20-23 period, before drop-
exceptional gas purchases from the Inkoo LNG ping to around 50 GWh per day in the rest of
terminal, it said. the week. Significant congestion continued, with
Finnish gas demand grew substantially gas entering and exiting Finland on the same day
towards the end of February, supported by low despite falling temperatures towards the end of
prices. Exacerbating the situation, the small- the eighth week. That led “to inefficient use of
scale Hamina LNG terminal was also closed the transmission capacity in a peak situation,”
between February 16 and 25 as a result of according to Gasgrid.
unplanned maintenance. Congestion dragged on into the ninth week
These factors led to a significant gap between after weather became colder once more, with gas
available physical supply and expected con- flow spiking at 51 GWh per day on March 6-7.
sumption, leading Gasgrid to intervene. Fin- Furthermore, Gasgrid said it suspected that
land’s emergency supply agency made an some operators may have sought to circumvent
exceptional sale of gas from the Inkoo LNG ter- Balticconnector’s confirmed capacity allocation
minal on the country’s gas exchange in order to conditions and regulators. It has reported all
balance the market. The purchase price resulted suspicious actions to energy regulator Energ-
in gas balancing prices reaching €163 per MWh iavirasto, which will assess for possible market
($1,850 per 1,000 cubic metres) – approximately manipulation. Gasgrid and Energiavirasto will
five times the current front-month TTF price. also look at whether the conditions of the alloca-
This spike helped reduce demand from some tion mechanism should be revised.
users and balance the grid. Finland previously relied on Russian gas to
In the eighth week of the year, the capacity of cover almost all its demand until the launch of
the Balticconnector linking Finland with Esto- Balticconector at the start of 2020 gave it access
nia was heavily oversubscribed. Nominations to alternative supplies. The country had its Rus-
on different days were as much as eight times sian supply cut off last spring after the govern-
higher than the 54 GWh per day of capacity ment refused to pay for shipments in rubles,
that was available. Several parties requested as demanded by the Kremlin in a decree. The
the maximum amount of capacity allowed to Inkoo LNG terminal started up in January this
get “the largest share of Balticconector’s free year. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 11 14•March•2023