100th Million Cubic Meter of Gas Was Traded on the Exchange

We inform you that the 100^th million cubic meter of natural gas was traded on the Exchange on 5th July 2014. „It is pleasure to track such a round figures and ongoing processes of natural gas market development. Couple years ago while starting the Natural Gas Exchange activity people were raising questions: is it possible that Gas Exchange could operate while we have just one external supplier, is it not too early to start this activity in Lithuania; will there appear situations that trading on the Exchange could be more beneficial rather than trading directly? The figures are giving the answers to those questions: 100^th million cubic meter of natural gas was traded on last weekend; more than 400 deals were fulfilled during the whole period; 34 market participants have already registered on the Exchange and all of them together consume more that 90% of total natural gas consumption of the country, all 5 gas importing companies are acting on the Exchange as well.

Adding to the illustrative figures and remembering the start of the activity, it would be good to note, that even in 2012 we have looked more deeply and from long term perspective while analyzing the opportunities of Gas Exchange activity. Seeking to find the best solution for the market we were raising quite different questions rather than the sceptics, which have doubted the need of such activity at the beginning. We were looking for the answers how the market will develop in Lithuania, what tendencies will be in the region, what solutions we can realize taking in to account current infrastructure and foreseen development projects of the transmission system operators, does there exist a technical solutions matching the market model of the Baltic region countries, which we could use for reaching our goals? We worked openly with the market, explained our vision, listened to their needs and were openly discussing even before the start of activity. Finally we came to the conclusion that Gas Exchange as the instrument based on the spot trading will be needed as the market will develop and the application of such solution on the regional level is exactly the way that we need to go.

Our vision – to develop and implement the regional Gas Exchange model was enthusiastically supported by the key partner of this project – Finnish gas company – Gasum Oy, which owned the Finnish Gas Exchange, operating there already from 2001. Exactly that Scandinavian model we are using in our activity.

Other regional partners did not stay indifferent, that is why the analogous solution is planned to be launched in Estonia already at the beginning of next year by implementing foreseen goals.” – the situation on the Natural Gas Exchange commented Haroldas Nausėda the CEO of GET Baltic, UAB.

In the soon going to be announced Report of Trading on Natural Gas Exchange there will be reviewed the results of the 2^nd quarter 2014 in more detail.