GAS CONSUMPTION TO SHOW INCREASE IN FINLAND

Natural gas consumption in Finland, rising steadily in recent years, is headed higher.

Here's what's happening:

• Under an agreement between Neste Oy and the Soviet Union's Sojuzgasexport, Neste will import 2.8-3 billion cu m of gas during 1991, an increase from about 2.7 billion cu m imported in 1990. Neste, Finland's biggest enterprise, has been importing Soviet gas since 1974.

• Construction of a loop on a gas export pipeline from Leningrad to the Soviet-Finnish border is to begin early this year.

• Because maximum volume of the supply pipeline probably will be reached "in the not too distant future," it probably will be necessary to construct a loop system in Finland, Neste said.

• Helsinki will switch from town gas to natural gas during 1990-94. Under an agreement signed between Neste and Helsinkikaasu Oy last October, Neste will supply 10 million cu m of natural gas to the capital. This is expected to rise to 20-30 million cu m by the end of the 1990s.

• A compressor station was officially commissioned at Valkeala, near Kouvola, at the end of last November. Joining the station built earlier at Raakkyla, near Imatra on the Soviet-Finnish border, the new station is expected to result in better pressure stability and gas flow around the gas pipeline system, particularly during periods of peak demand.

Finland produces no hydrocarbons and has no gas storage sites.

So some gas consumers cope with fuel demand peaks by temporarily switching to substitute fuels, mainly heavy fuel oil, and to a lesser extent light fuel oil. Use of oil as a replacement fuel during peak demand periods is part of normal supply practice.

SCHTOKMANOVSKOYE? LNG?

Long term, multisourcing and/or LNG are seen as ways to meet Finland's gas supply problem, Neste said.

Schtokmanovskoye field, a probable world class giant in the Barents Sea, represents one possible new source for Finland (see map, OGJ, Aug. 6, 1990, p. 28). Gas from it, however, likely won't be available until toward the end of the 1990s. The LNG option, although expensive, could help fill the gap. Volumes in terminal storage could help meet peak gas demand.

Neste and Imatran Voima have completed a study on the possibility of building an LNG terminal and storage site at Inkoo, west of Helsinki.

Total cost of the project has been estimated at a likely $550 million (U.S.). Half of the sum would be taken up by the terminal and a spur line to tie in with the gas pipeline system. The other half would build ice reinforced LNG tankers to supply the site. Such tankers are not available for charter on the world market.

Four rock cavern storage units, each of 100,000 cu m capacity, are at the lnkoo site, which is home to an Imatran Voima power station. They currently store oil, but modifying them to store LNG at - 162 C. would be technically feasible.

During liquefication, natural gas is reduced to 1/600 of its normal volume. So the existing lnkoo caverns would have room for about 80,000320,000 cu m of LNG, equal to 50-200 million cu m of natural gas.

SECOND LNG Option

A study of the feasibility of building a smaller, buffer type storage facility at Porvoo, with a capacity equal to 40 million cu m of natural gas, and an LNG terminal to feed it was commissioned by Neste 2 years ago.

Such a facility could provide added seasonal supply reliability, Neste said. Because it would need to be filled once or twice a year, in the spring and autumn when the Baltic Sea is free of ice, it could be supplied using normal LNG tanker tonnage.

The Inkoo terminal, on the other hand, would require deliveries once a month throughout the year.

Neste cited figures showing that about 47 million metric tons of LNG were sold on the international market in 1989.

That's equal to 65 billion cu m of natural gas. Supplies come from Algeria, Libya, the U.S., Abu Dhabi, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, and Australia.

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