Latvijas Gaze Seeks TPA Suspension
Latvia's gas monopoly Latvijas Gaze has asked the national regulator, the public utilities commission (PUC), for a temporary suspension of third parties’ rights to use its transmission system for gas to be consumed in Latvia.
The company argues the request is possible, as Latvia's energy law envisions that if a vertically-integrated energy supplier has encountered, or believes that it will encounter, serious economic and financial hardship in relation to one or more of its gas purchase contracts, then it may submit to the regulator an application for the granting of temporary derogation from the duties specified in the law.
The request follows the Latvian government’s decision to speed up the unbundling of the country’s gas infrastructure being operated solely by Latvijas Gaze until now.
The PUC issued a warning to Latvijas Gaze in April for disallowing rival Latvenergo access to the gas infrastructure so that the company could begin purchasing gas from Lithuania. This gas could be cheaper than the gas that Latvijas Gaze has for sale, leaving it with gas it has contracted to buy but cannot sell as profitably.
Separately in Lithuania, Klaipedos Nafta's LNG import terminal, the floating storage and regasification vessel Independence, has seen a big rise in throughput. It received 250% more LNG, at 6.478 terawatt-hours (0.6bn m3) of gas, in the first quarter of the year than it did in the same period of 2015, the operator said.
Linas Jegelevicius