Conexus: natural gas traders plan to actively use the Inčukalns underground gas storage

The results of this week's capacity auction of the Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage Facility, as summarised by the single natural gas management and storage system operator JSC Conexus Baltic Grid, show that traders plan to actively use the Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage Facility in the upcoming 2022/2023 natural gas withdrawal cycle. At present, virtually all available storage capacity has been reserved.

It should be underlined that the capacity auctioning principle was introduced at the time to allow marketers to store natural gas in storage according to the amount of storage capacity allocated to them, thus ensuring transparency for market participants in reserving storage capacity.

On 14 June, the Inčukalns UGS grouped capacity product auctions concluded. The Inčukalns UGS capacity auctions held from February to May awarded a total of 16 264 307 MWh to bidders. Of these, 12 264 307 MWh were allocated to the one-year grouped capacity product for the 2022/2023 storage cycle, and 4 000 000 MWh were allocated to the two-year grouped capacity product for the 2022/2024 cycle.

The premium applicable to the amount of the one-year grouped capacity product allocated to system users, depending on the auction, ranges from EUR 0,00/MWh to EUR 1,51/MWh, while the premium applicable to the amount of the two-year grouped capacity product allocated is EUR 0,00/MWh.