During the discussion on the forecast of the next heating season in Latvia, Egils Lapsalis, Member of the Board of Latvijas Gāze, pointed out that natural gas is sufficient both for Latvijas Gāze customers and for the whole region. Of course, the unknown factor is its price, and this will affect those customers who have not yet fixed the price of natural gas for the next heating season. Egils Lapsalis also points out that one of the factors influencing the price is the air temperature. If the fourth quarter in Europe is cold, then the increase in gas consumption will lead to gas being taken out of storage and this will cause the price to rise sharply. If the quarter is warm, the price should fall.

Regarding the current situation in the natural gas market, Egils Lapsalis points out that among natural gas traders, it is not who can buy gas at the best price that competes best, but rather who knows best how to buy capacity and get the gas to its final destination.

In order to avoid facing challenges in the future, it is the availability of gas transportation that should be considered. For example, transmission system repairs should not be carried out when it is most convenient for the operator, but the needs of the market should be considered instead, as otherwise, it is not possible to transport natural gas in the summer when it is theoretically possible to buy the cheapest natural gas. This is why we need to look at increasing the capacity of the Latvia-Lithuania and Poland-Lithuania interconnectors in the future.