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BEMIP Gas Regional Investment Plan 2017
4.5 Latvia
There is no indigenous gas production in Latvia, and all
gas consumed in the country is imported from Russia
through two 700mm pipelines. This is performed only
during the warm period of the year (April-September)
when part of the received gas is injected into Inčukalns
Underground Gas Storage, while the rest is delivered
directly to consumers. During winter, gas from the
underground facility was formerly delivered to Latvian
customers, as well as customers in Estonia and NW
Russia thus securing reliable gas supply for the whole
region.
However, in summer of 2016 only volumes of gas to be used by customers in Latvia
were injected into the storage following the decision of Gazprom not to use Incukalns
UGS for customers in Russia since after enhancement of gas transmission network
in the Russian NW region there are enough capacities in the network to supply cus-
tomers directly by pipeline.
Latvia has gas connection to Lithuania. Due to several reasons during 2015, the
natural gas price in Lithuania was lower than in Estonia. Almost 100 million m³ were
delivered from Lithuania to Estonia via Latvia through this connection. This
interconnection is also used in emergency cases for gas supplied to Lithuania or in
cases of construction works or other situations when there is a need to supply some
customers in Latvia from the Lithuanian side. It is expected that the importance of
this interconnection will increase after the gas market opens in Latvia in 2017 and,
especially, after commissioning the gas interconnection between Poland in Lithuania
(GIPL). The project of enhancing the Latvia–Lithuania interconnection is included in
the list of the Projects of Common Interest.
Latvian gas is interconnected with Estonia. However, it can currently only be used to
supply gas supply to Estonia from Latvia and it was mainly used to supply custom-
ers in Estonia from Inčukalns UGS.
Since the first natural gas supplies to Latvia began in 1962, part of the gas network
is old and the entire transmission system is designed for annual consumption of up
to 4 bcm, more than two times the current consumption level in Latvia. After
privatisation of JSC “Latvijas Gāze” in 1997, assessment of the technical state of
infrastructure was carried out and the entire gas supply system in Latvia was
modernised step-by-step.
Extensive modernisation was performed over the past decade, and from 1997 until
the end of 2015, JSC “Latvijas Gāze” spent 447 million euros modernising and
improving safety.