Estonian Stockpiling Agency to announce 3rd natgas procurement next week

TALLINN - The Estonian Stockpiling Agency is planning to announce next week the third procurement for establishing a national strategic natural gas reserve.

"Natural gas supply capacities continuously fall short compared with demand in the Baltic and Finnish region of the gas market, which is why natural gas is a commodity in short supply and there are few sales offers. Despite a complicated market situation, the Stockpiling Agency continues to work towards fulfilling its government-imposed task to form a gas reserve," head of communication at the Estonian Stockpiling Agency Martin Jasko told BNS.

Buying natural gas at any price may not be reasonable, however, and neither would it resolve the main problem in the Estonian market area, which is establishing a supplementary option for gas supply, that is for bringing more gas to the Baltic states and Finland.

"Thus, the rapid launch of a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Estonia or Finland would be the sustainable market-based solution," Jasko said.  

The second procurement held by the Stockpiling Agency from July 1-20 for the purpose of establishing a national strategic gas reserve saw four tenders submitted with a total volume of 100 gigawatt-hours of natural gas. The plan is to establish a total reserve of 1 terawatt-hour of gas.

The first procurement ended in June. Four bids were likewise submitted to this tender, all of which were declared successful, and supply contracts were concluded with them also to the tune of 100 gigawatt-hours of gas.