Baltic gas exchange records all-time high transactions in January

London — The Lithuania-based GET Baltic gas exchange saw an all-time high in trade transactions in January, boosted by regional gas integration in the Baltic region, with total transactions reaching 2,482, it said Feb. 10.

GET Baltic said the volume traded last month rose by 77% year on year to 991 GWh -- or almost 0.1 Bcm.

The increased trading comes on the back of a record year in 2020 when GET Baltic recorded a total trade volume of 7.2 TWh.

"The year 2021 started with increased activity in trading and a record number of concluded transactions," it said.

GET Baltic -- which was launched in 2012 -- expanded its operations to include Finland from 2020 in a bid to create a "one-stop shop" for gas trading in the Baltic region.

Since the beginning of 2020, the markets of Estonia and Latvia also formed a common balancing zone, and while Finland remains a separate balancing area, it is part of the common entry tariff area with Estonia and Latvia.

Improved interconnectivity between the countries and the wider gas market has been a focus for the four countries for several years as they look to reduce their previous dependence on Russian gas imports.

With the startup at the end of 2019 of the 2.6 Bcm/year capacity Balticconnector, there has been a direct link between Finland and the Baltic region via Estonia for the first time.

During January, a total of 48 participants actively submitted orders, all of them successfully concluding transactions, the exchange said.

Prices

Cold weather and growing competition on the gas exchange also had an impact on prices, it said.

The Baltic-Finnish Gas Spot Index (BGSI), which captures daily market gas price values, was Eur17.98/MWh ($21.79/MWh) in January, up from Eur14.91/MWh in December.

By contrast, the average day-ahead price on the Dutch TTF hub in January was Eur20.30/MWh, according to S&P Global Platts data, giving the Baltic region a more than Eur2/MWh discount to the European benchmark.

The average price in the Lithuanian market area was Eur18.23/MWh in January, while in the Latvian-Estonian common market area it was Eur16.83/MWh, and in the Finnish market area Eur18.29/MWh.