Record-breaking December on the Exchange – Impressive Volumes and Prices

UAB GET Baltic is reporting that the month of December was particularly active for the Natural Gas Exchange. For the last month of 2013, 55.8 MCM of natural gas the value of which amounted to LTL 64.5 million were traded on the Exchange. This month, the lowest price amounted to 1,101 LTL/thou. m³, whereas, in November, the lowest price was 1,210 LTL/thou. m³. In December, the average natural gas price on the Exchange was 1,153.57 LTL/thou. m³. At the present time, 22 natural gas market players: both suppliers and consumers, are operating on the Exchange. The portfolio of the Company‘s customers is quite diversified: ranging from major gas importers supplying gas to Lithuanian customers, the largest consumers who even have entered into direct contracts on natural gas supply with an external gas supplying entity – to new natural gas market players to whom specifically the Natural Gas Exchange created favourable conditions to enter the Lithuanian natural gas market.

According to the UAB GET Baltic Chief Executive Officer Haroldas Nausėda: “There are several key reasons that caused such good results in December, which could be enounced: first one – the beginning of a heating season, second one – the end of a calendar year, when market players become far more flexible as they can evaluate the fulfilment of the contracts concluded with suppliers, as, upon realizing a natural gas volume that is mandatory under contracts, they can freely acquire gas in any other manner, specifically on the Exchange.

We see that strong frosts are not necessary for active sales. However, I believe that the number of deals would be even more impressive if an average air temperature in December was at least -5 Celsius. It is expected that trade will continue to be active this year as well, at least during the cold season. These tendencies also are natural in other Member States: for the time being, trade processes in the market of spot deals become far more intensive.

Significant increase in trade volumes is most important due to the fact that it is resulted from the natural market needs and development process. In this case, both buyers and sellers benefited from this. Otherwise, trade would not succeed, because trade on the Exchange is not mandatory. If companies made such decisions, I mean – some decided to buy, while others – to sell, it is evident that those decisions were economically justified and beneficial”.

UAB GET Baltic Natural Gas Exchange has been operating since 21 January 2013. In total, 57.6 MCM of natural gas have been traded on the Exchange for 2013. In the future, upon diversifying the sources of natural gas supply, which is, upon the completion of construction of the LNG terminal and the Lithuanian-Polish interconnector as well as upon intensifying the usage of the Lithuanian-Latvian interconnector in trade between the Baltic countries, the importance and need of the Exchange will only increase.