In the first quarter of 2024, Lithuania consumed 5.5 terawatt hours (TWh) of gas, or 72% more than in the winter of 2023, when the country's gas demand was 3.2 TWh, according to data from Amber Grid, the gas transmission system operator. The increase in gas demand is due to slightly colder winter weather than last year and lower gas prices on the market. The latter led to higher gas consumption in fertiliser production.
While domestic consumption increased, the volume of gas transported to Lithuania decreased, mainly due to the outage of the Balticconector pipeline. In the first three months of this year, 7.8 TWh of gas was delivered to Lithuania, excluding transit to Kaliningrad. This is 21% less than in the same period last year, when 9.9 TWh of gas was transported to Lithuania.
"The lower gas deliveries to other countries this quarter are due to the closure of the Balticconector pipeline between Estonia and Finland due to a rupture last October. As a result, gas suppliers were unable to use our system to supply the Finnish market. We also saw more moderate gas flows into the Latvian gas storage facility during the quarter. The volumes stored in the Inčukalns underground storage facility for the Finnish market could not be transported to Finland and were therefore sold on the Baltic markets. As a result, more gas was transported from storage to Lithuania in the first quarter. This situation also affected the utilisation of the GIPL pipeline, with gas being transported mainly to Poland during this period," says Nemunas Biknius, CEO of Amber Grid.
The GIPL pipeline connecting Lithuania and Poland transported 1 TWh of gas to Europe between January and March 2024. 1 TWh of gas was transported to Latvia and Estonia for their needs and for storage in the Inčukalns underground gas storage facility. This is a 79% decrease compared to the same period in 2023.
The Klaipėda LNG terminal, the main source of gas supply to Lithuania and the other Baltic countries, accounted for 72% (5.6 TWh) of the total gas transported into the system in January-March 2024. Flows from Latvia accounted for 27% (2.1 TWh).
