Conexus: last year managed to ensure uninterrupted and secure natural gas supply even in difficult geopolitical conditions

Although 2022 was marked by a crisis in the energy sector and a realignment of natural gas supplies, the single natural gas transmission and storage system operator Conexus Baltic Grid AS (Conexus) managed to ensure the most important thing - security and continuity of natural gas supply. Despite the difficult conditions, Conexus net turnover amounted to EUR 55.1 million, which is only 3% less than a year earlier, according to the company's unaudited financial statements for last year.

The drop in turnover is mainly due to a 20% drop in the volume of natural gas transported, while the natural gas storage segment performed better. Due to high gas prices, the volume of natural gas consumed by Latvian users fell to 8.8 TWh, down by a third compared to last year. Similarly, the substantial increase in the price of natural gas also led to a decrease in electricity generation at the country's largest thermal power plants. 

"Last year, the key challenge was to switch to new sources of natural gas supply, successfully adapting to market changes. Natural gas traders actively increased natural gas deliveries from Klaipeda LNG terminal, with the volume of natural gas received from Lithuania reaching 17 TWh (excluding transit), which is almost 9 times more than the previous year," explains Mārtiņš Gode, Member of the Conexus Management Board.

In response to the geopolitical situation in Europe, natural gas injection into the Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage facility started already at the end of February 2022. In order to contribute to the security and continuity of natural gas supply, natural gas is also pumped into the storage facility during the withdrawal season.

During 2022, several capacity auctions were held for the Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage facility, which resulted in natural gas traders fully reserving the entire technical capacity of the storage facility of 24.1 TWh, an increase of 27%. As of 31 December 2022, the Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage facility contained 11.3 TWh of natural gas stored by natural gas traders.