Latvijas Gaze has sufficient gas stocks to supply its clients until mid-2013 - CEO

  • 2022-11-30
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - Latvijas Gaze natural gas utility has sufficient gas stocks to supply its clients until mid-2023, the company's CEO Aigars Kalvitis informed LETA. 

"Households can be sure that this winter they will have enough gas," Kalvitis said. 

Representatives of Latvijas Gaze, however, declined to reveal the size of the gas reserves, saying that it was a commercial secret. 

As reported, the amount of natural gas for supplying households during the heating season is 1.15 terawatt hours (TWh), and by the government's decision Latvijas Gaze is obliged to store this amount of natural gas at the Incukalns underground gas storage facility. The company does not have the right to transfer these gas stocks to other users, and Conexus gas transmission and storage system operator monitors that this does not happen.

On September 1, Latvijas Gaze reported that it had 0.2946 TWh natural gas left in stock and warned that its gas stocks were insufficient to meet the needs of Latvia's households and that the company was not able to comply with the provision of the Energy Law, obliging the gas company to stock up on 1.15 TWh of gas by August 31.

The Economics Ministry and Conexus confirmed earlier that the amount of natural gas reserves of Latvijas Gaze was even greater than required. 

On August 31, Kalvitis said on Latvian Television that the gas stocks stored in Incukalns belonged to other companies which had ordered Latvijas Gaze to purchase the gas already in the spring for storing it in the underground facility. 

The largest shareholders of Latvijas Gaze are Gazprom (34 percent), Marguerite Gas II.S.a.r.l. (28.97 percent), Uniper Ruhrgas International GmbH (18.26 percent) and Itera Latvija (16 percent).