In the first nine months of 2023 the net turnover of Latvijas gāze JSC (LG) was EUR 120.544 million, which is 78% less when compared to the same period of 2022. Losses reached EUR 24.924 million, as opposed to profits last year, as mentioned in the announcement to Nasdaq Riga exchange.
The report from the company’s management mentions that the tension and uncertainty on the gas markets in nine months of 2023 has gone down significantly when compared to 2022. European gas storage facilities, Latvia included, have high stores of gas, and the prices of gas are significantly lower now.
Despite this, however, natural gas consumption remains low. According to data published by the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, the volume of natural gas consumed in Latvia went down by 6.9% when compared to the same period of last year. A drop in gas consumption is observed elsewhere in Europe as well. This is mostly because of low activity in the industrial sector.
In addition to that, Q4 commenced with significant challenges for the natural gas markets – the military conflict between Israel and Palestine
and the damages caused to Balticconnector pipeline caused a level of instability for global gas markets, which affects both gas supplies and prices, LG explains.
Despite all of the aforementioned challenges, LG performed all necessary tasks in 2023 to ensure security and stability for their clients. The necessary volume of gas was pumped into Inčukalns underground gas storage facility. This ensure uninterrupted gas supply, including for the 2023/2024 heating season.
The management’s report mentioned that after the liberalisation of the households market in May 2023, LG preserved more than 90% of its household clients portfolio when compared to the number of clients at the beginning of the year.
The company’s operational activities are still affected by requirements of the Cabinet of Ministers “On the supply of energy users during the early warning and alarm level announcement”, which require the public trader to maintain gas stores in Inčukalns underground gas storage facility at 1 150 GWh to supply users with gas in the period between 10th of August 2022 and the 30th of April 2023.
Due to these requirements, LG’s balance on the 30th of April contained 236 GWh of natural gas, which was reserved only for the supply of households and could not be resold to other customers at prices corresponding to the market level, despite the actual decrease of 20% in the volume required for the gas supply needs of related users in both 2022 and 2023 compared to the average consumption of the previous three years.
As previously reported, LG turnover in 2022 was EUR 702.604 million, which is 32.5% more than in 2021. The company’s profits went up several times, reaching EUR 40.824 million.
LG’s biggest shareholders include Russia’s Gazprom (34%), Energy Investments LLC (28.97%) owned by LG management members Aigars Kalvītis, Elita Dreimane and Egīls Lapsalis, German Uniper Ruhrgas International GmbH (18.26%) and Itera Latvija LLC (16%).
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