After a significant decrease in gas consumption in the previous year, gas demand in Lithuania remained stable in 2023. Last year, Amber Grid supplied 14.9 terawatt hours (TWh) of gas to Lithuanian gas consumers, 4% less than in 2022. The decrease in gas consumption was due to the warm weather last winter, high gas prices at the beginning of the year and lower gas consumption for fertiliser production and urban heating.
Lithuania remains an important gas hub for neighbouring countries. In 2023, a total of 61.2 TWh of natural gas was transported through the Lithuanian gas transmission system. Of this, 19.1 TWh was transported to the Baltic States and Finland via the Latvian interconnector and 3.2 TWh to Poland.
"Last year, the Lithuanian system played a key role in ensuring that Latvia's gas storage facilities were filled when market conditions were favourable. This was made possible by the ELLI project to increase the capacity of the interconnector with Latvia, which was implemented together with the Latvian transmission system operator," said Nemunas Biknius, CEO of Amber Grid.
The Klaipėda LNG terminal, the main source of gas imports for Lithuania and the other Baltic countries, accounted for 85% (31.9 TWh) of the total gas transported into the system in 2023. Flows from Latvia accounted for almost 7% (2.5 TWh) and from Poland 9% (3.3 TWh).
Following the connection of the first biomethane plant to the gas transmission system last year, 47 gigawatt hours (GWh) of green gas produced in Lithuania with guarantees of origin were injected into the system in the second half of the year. The import of biomethane produced in EU countries and meeting sustainability criteria started at the end of 2022, bringing the total amount of biomethane imported into Lithuania in 2023 to 40 GWh with guarantees of origin recognised in Lithuania.
After Lithuania stops importing Russian gas in 2022, only gas destined for Kaliningrad will be transported via the Lithuania-Belarus interconnector. Gas transit to the Kaliningrad region amounts to 23.9 TWh in 2023 (23.4 TWh in 2022).
