Traded Baltic, Finnish gas prices fall together in September: exchange

The average traded daily gas prices in the Baltic region and Finland fell together in September, data published Oct. 8 by Lithuania-based regional gas exchange GET Baltic showed.

All three market areas traded on the exchange -- Finland, Lithuania and the joint Estonia-Latvia market -- remained largely converged and saw average prices drop compared with August.

The Finnish traded price had been at a significant premium to the other regional prices from October 2023 until April 2024 after damage to the Balticconnector pipeline, which left Finland dependent solely on LNG imports.

However, prices converged in the Baltic region and Finland as the Balticconnector between Estonia and Finland resumed operations.

In September, the traded price in the Finnish market area averaged Eur40.01/MWh, in Lithuania Eur40.99/MWh and in the Latvia/Estonia market Eur39.76/MWh.

"In September, a decrease in gas demand was observed across Europe," Giedre Kurme, CEO of GET Baltic Exchange, said.

"Naturally, lower demand in the market leads to reduced transaction prices. Similar trends were also seen in our region."

BGSI price

Average traded prices in the region as a whole in absolute terms in September fell 5% month on month, GET Baltic said.

The average traded price on the exchange -- the so-called Baltic-Finnish Gas Spot Index (BGSI) -- in September was Eur40.37/MWh, compared with Eur42.45/MWh in August, GET Baltic said.

The BGSI reflects the average price of concluded transactions in the daily market on the exchange, which allows for gas trading in the Finnish, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian markets.

The BGSI in September was also significantly higher than traded prices in Western Europe.

The September BGSI at Eur40.37/MWh compares with the Platts-assessed TTF day-ahead average of Eur36.16/MWh in the same month, Commodity Insights data showed.

In September, the traded volume on the exchange totaled 434 GWh, with all gas traded in the daily market, GET Baltic said.

The largest volume of gas was purchased on the Lithuanian market area, with 194 GWh -- or 45% of the total -- traded.

Some 157 GWh of gas was purchased on the Latvia/Estonia market and the remaining 82 GWh in Finland.

The Baltic region and Finland were historically dependent on imports from Russia but can now access LNG via Lithuania and Finland, as well as gas via Poland after the startup of the new Poland-Lithuania interconnector.