In 6 months of 2010 the Joint Stock Company „Latvijas Gāze” (hereinafter – LG) sold to consumers 985 million m3 of natural gas, which is by 22% more than in the respective period of 2009.

The increase of natural gas consumption among both industrial and residential customers during the 6 months of 2010 stems from the protractedly low air temperature in the 1st quarter of 2010 and competitive natural gas sale price because clients received natural gas from Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage Facility (hereinafter - Inčukalns UGS) which was bought in autumn 2009 for considerably lower price than fuel oil price in the market because of the rising oil product quotations in the stock exchange. In the beginning of 2009 there was opposite trend – heat supply companies began to use fuel oil and other alternative fuel because of the high natural gas prices.

It is planned that 1 945 million m3 of natural gas would be injected into the Inčukalns UGS in 2010, reaching 1 997 million m3 of active gas at the end of the injection season.

In the 1st half of 2010, consumers were sold natural gas and provided services for LVL 178 million, which is by 13% less than in the respective period of 2009. The fall of income towards the respective period of 2009 stems from the industrial users and residential customers being applied the discriminative natural gas sale end tariffs in the 1st quarter of 2010. These tariffs corresponded to the natural gas sale price, which was by 82.6 % lower than in Q1 of 2009. The income, compared to 2009, decreased both from industrial and household customers. The income from transmission and storage, for its part, increased, as other countries used the services of the Inčukalns UGS more intensively due to the cold weather, as well as there were higher tariffs of natural gas storage in the 1st quarter of 2010.

LG completed 6 months of 2010 with a profit of LVL 7.9 million, which is by 18% higher than in the respective period of 2009 when the profit amounted to LVL 6.7 million.

Within the framework of the capital investment programme, LVL 7.5 million of investment funds were taken up over 6 months of 2010. The funds were mostly spent on the construction of new gas pipelines and the renovation of existing ones, modernization of technological equipment, as well the reconstruction of engineering buildings and constructions.

Vinsents Makaris
Phone + (371) 67 369 144
E-mail: IR@lg.lv