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Ice restrictions to increase at Hamina port

  • Market: Natural gas
  • 03/01/24

Ice-class restrictions at Finland's Hamina port will increase from 7 January, although the small-scale LNG terminal's main user Alexela still expects to be able to deliver its cargoes without difficulties this month.

Low-level restrictions are already in place at Hamina, limiting access to ice-breaking assistance to vessels of at least ice-class II and 2,000t deadweight. This has had no effect on the delivery of LNG to the small-scale terminal at Hamina, as all LNG vessels should meet these requirements. Restrictions will increase to a minimum of ice-class I and 2,000t deadweight from 7 January.

Regional supplier Alexela is "not anticipating problems" with the new restrictions as all four tankers that it is set to receive at Hamina this month should have a high enough ice-class ranking, it told Argus. Alexela had no issues securing ice-breaking assistance and delivering its cargoes last year when identical restrictions were in place, it said.

There is as yet no expected change to ice restrictions at nearby Inkoo, where the country's largest LNG terminal and main import source is located, with ice-class II and 2,000t deadweight restrictions in place since 9 December. The restrictions have yet to affect LNG deliveries, with the terminal most recently receiving a 950GWh cargo aboard the 155,000m³ Arctic Aurora on 26 December (see data and download).

Cold snap could drive higher gas demand

Extreme cold in Finland and the Baltic states could keep gas demand high in the region in the coming days.

Minimum temperatures in Helsinki dropped to minus 20°C on 1-2 January from an already well below-average minus 7.7°C in December. Temperatures were even lower in more sparsely populated areas of Finland further north. To the south, Tallinn's minimum temperature dropped to near minus 18°C yesterday, while Riga's lows were near minus 14°C and those in Vilnius were down to minus 8°C.

And minimum temperatures in Helsinki are forecast to hold between minus 15°C and minus 18°C between today and Sunday, according to the Finnish national meteorological institute.

Such cold weather will drive strong heating demand, increasing the call on gas for direct heating and for use in district heating plants. Finnish power consumption has reached a peak for this winter of 14.5GW and will stay high for the rest of this week, Finnish power system operator Fingrid said, noting it could reach as high as 15GW. While the Finnish system has coped well thanks to the smooth operation of power plants and interconnectors, it is still "important for electricity users to participate in the consumption flexibility by scheduling their electricity use away from the morning and afternoon peak hours, if possible", Fingrid said.

Most Finnish heat demand is supplied by district heating or heat pumps, meaning that there is little direct gas consumption from households. But given that power and heat demand is so high, utilities are particularly incentivised to run combined heat and power (CHP) plants strongly. Gas-fired generation in Finland of 510MW yesterday was far above its average of 293MW in December.

That said, the call on gas for power generation is heavily dependent on wind conditions. Gas-fired output was only 186MW on 1 January even despite the cold weather, as wind generation was particularly strong at 2.7GW against 1.55GW on 2 January.

The Finnish day-ahead gas price on regional exchange GETBaltic has climbed since 31 December, reaching a high of €69.82/MWh for delivery on 3 January (see graph).

Finnish day-ahead price on GETBaltic €/MWh

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