The Office of the Prosecutor General of Latvia has commenced an investigation of the situation with gas reserves for the 2022/2023 heating season, specifically the responsibility of Latvijas Gāze JSC and compliance of the public trader’s decisions to the Energy Law, as LETA was informed by the office.
In parallel to that, the office continues evaluating information provided in different reports. Some decisions regarding the possible start of criminal proceedings will be sent to the State Security Service and others to the Office for Prevention of Laundering of Proceeds Derived from Criminal Activity.
As of 1 September the gas storage volume owned by Latvijas gāze in Inčukalns is 0.2946 TWh, according to the company’s report to Nasdaq Riga.
This basically means the company does not have a sufficient volume of gas to keep households in Latvia supplied with natural gas this heating season. On top of that, the company thereby admitted failure in complying with the requirement listed in the Energy Law, according to which the company was supposed to accumulate 1.15 TWh by the end of August.
At the same time, despite the aforementioned volume of gas LG owns in Inčukalns underground gas storage facility and limited gas supply opportunities, the company continues taking measures to resolve the problem and complete obligations before gas users in the 2022/2023 heating season.
It is also reported that the volume of gas intended to satisfy the needs of users this heating season is 1.15 TWh, which is why the government has ordered LG to keep this volume in storage until 30 September. As for 1 October 2022 and 30 April 2023 period, the volume of gas stored at the underground facility as of the first dates of each month is to be at the volume of gas that is equal to the difference between 1.15 TWh and the volume of gas supplied to users between 1 October and the last day of the previous month.
The public trader does not have the right to hand over these gas stores to other users.
The Ministry of Economics previously released a statement in which the institution explains that the volume of gas owned by Latvijas gāze at Inčukalns underground gas storage facility exceeds the volume needed to satisfy the needs of households.
Conexus Baltic Grid JSC (Conexus) confirmed in a statement that the volume of gas owned by Latvijas gāze is much higher than what is required by the rules adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers.
Conexus also reported that topics of ownership of gas stored at Inčukalns underground gas storage facility is the competence of users of the system, and Conexus has a duty to ensure protection of confidential information it receives from system users.
In his interview to LTV programme Kas notiek Latvijā?, chairman of Latvijas gāze Aigars Kalvītis said the aforementioned gas volume that allegedly exceeds the volume required by the law is owned by other companies.
Multiple companies, after seeing gas prices, requested Latvijas gāze to procure gas as early as spring in order to secure reserves in Inčukalns.
Latvijas gāze’s biggest shareholders are Russian Gazprom (34%), Marguerite Gas II.S.a.r.l. (28.97%), German Uniper Ruhrgas International GmbH (18.26%) and Itera Latvija LLC (16%).