Gazprom's Latvijas Gaze says can't meet Latvia's gas storage goal

Latvijas Gaze AS

10/08/2022 16:36

OSLO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Latvian gas trader Latvijas Gaze
 GZE1R.RI , partly owned by Gazprom  GAZP.MM , said it was
unable to supply enough gas for Latvia to meet an Aug. 31 goal
on filling storage and said the responsibility lay with the
country's state utility.
    While the European Union has told its member states to fill
gas storage to 80% full by Oct. 1 to try to ward off a shortage
of fuel over the peak demand winter months, Latvia also has a
national requirement for public gas suppliers to store enough
gas for households.
    The parliament set the requirement last month and at the
same time enacted a ban on gas imports from Russia effective
from the start of 2023.
    Latvijas Gaze, which buys most of its gas from Russia under
long-term contract with Gazprom, said on Wednesday it would not
be able to meet the Aug. 31 deadline and that state utility
Latvenergo should by law assume responsibility for supplies.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2ZM025
    Latvia's government said, however, the nation had enough
natural gas in storage to meet households' needs for the
upcoming heating season, the BNS news agency reported.
    It said it had reserved for domestic use natural gas held by
Latvijas Gaze at the country's underground Incukalns storage,
and that, together with other supplies, this would be
sufficient, BNS reported.
    Latvenergo separately told BNS it had the capacity to take
over Latvijas Gaze's portfolio of some 350,000 households.
    Latvijas Gaze is the largest supplier of gas to households
in the Baltic state with a population of 1.9 million, and it
also trades gas in neighbouring Lithuania and Latvia, as well as
in Finland.
    Russia's Gazprom is Latvijas Gaze's largest owner with a 34%
stake, followed by infrastructure investment fund Marquerite Gas
II with 28.97% and Germany's Uniper  UN01.DE  with 18.26%.
    Latvia's Incukalns gas storage, which has capacity to store
up to 21.8 TWh (terawatt-hours) of gas, is 54.3% full, according
to Gas Infrastructure Europe.
    The largest consumers of natural gas in Latvia are combined
heat and power plants, district heating companies and
industries. 

 (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik and
Barbara Lewis)
 ((nerijus.adomaitis@thomsonreuters.com; +47 9027 6699; Reuters
Messaging: nerijus.adomaitis.thomsonreuters@reuters.net))