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The state-owned operators of a Baltic Sea gas pipeline linking Estonia and Finland are increasing the bidirectional project’s carrying capacity for gas from Estonia to 70.5 gigawatt hours (gWh) a day as they work to restart the damage-hit pipeline.
The Balticconnector has been shut down since last month after a leak, in an incident first reported by Gasgrid Finland Oy and Estonia’s Elering AS October 8. Gasgrid said in a press release October 13 recommissioning could not be completed until April 2024.
“After the restoration of flows over the Balticconnector pipeline and once inspection and maintenance works in Estonian-Latvian system are executed, the base capacity will be increased in the EST-FIN direction to 70,5 GWh/day”, Gasgrid said of the capacity enhancement in a recent news release.
“Considering the planned regional maintenance works foreseen in 2024, the increased capacity can be offered for the market starting from October 2024”.
Gas flows from Estonia to Finland via the pipeline have historically ranged 55 gWh per day to 60 gWh per day during winter and 65 gWh per day in summer, according to Gasgrid. In the other direction, Finland has been exporting 78 gWh per day to Estonia through Balticconnector, Gasgrid noted.
“Enhancement of Latvia-Lithuania interconnection allows for higher gas volumes to be transported across the region”, the media release said.
“The results of capacity calculations and transmission system operation modeling conducted collaboratively by the TSOs [transmission system operators] indicate that the technical capacity of Balticconnector interconnection point can be increased”.
In the latest probe update over the Balticconnector incident, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said “technical examinations” have boosted leads pointing to a Hong Kong-flagged Chinese vessel as the source of the damage.
“Active scene investigation has been finished, but technical examinations are still going on… At this stage we can state that the anchor lifted from the sea on 24 October 2023, may for some technical details be considered to belong to Newnew Polar Bear”, NBI Detective Superintendent Risto Lohi said in a press statement November 10, referring to the vessel. “In the said anchor, same type of paint has also been detected as in the damaged gas pipeline”.
The Finnish police have contacted Chinese authorities for help in the investigation, according to the NBI.
“Although the investigation has progressed well and is being actively continued, it is still necessary to prepare for a long-lasting investigation due to the related technical examinations and several international requests”, the NBI said at the time.
On October 30 Finland’s National Emergency Supply Agency declared an alert level for the country’s gas supply prompted by the months-long shutdown of the Balticconnector, though it assured the domestic gas market remains stable.
The alert warning means a “significant deterioration of the gas supply” but the market can still manage the shortage without resorting to “non-market-based measures”, the NESA said in a media statement at the time. The current level is the middle of a three-level crisis scale.
Finland had been in the lower early warning level it declared May 6, 2022, in response to Russia halting natural gas supplies to the Nordic country, the NESA noted.
“At alert level, the gas market and the security of gas infrastructure in Finland are more closely monitored by the NESA and other authorities”, said the news release on the NESA website.
“The NESA can also give companies permission to tap into their compulsory stockpiles of gas”.
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
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