Finland Unbundles Gasum

Finland's gas market opened up to competition January 1 with the creation of Gasgrid Finland, an independent transmission system operator. It was formerly owned by Gasum, which is now only a gas supplier, but both are wholly state-owned – as is the case in Ukraine, which also unbundled its gas supply business from its gas transmission operations January 1.

The import and wholesale of gas is now possible for all operators registered as market participants. The Finnish open gas market is of interest to both domestic and international players and competition is good for Finnish gas users, Gasgrid said.

The Finnish gas transmission network can be used to import gas from Russia and the Balticconnector bi-directional gas pipeline can also be used to transfer gas between Finland and Estonia. In addition to these, biogas is fed into the grid.

Gasum CEO Johanna Lamminen said in December: "Greater competition will allow customers to buy their gas more flexibly than earlier. Gas traders will in turn be able to develop increasingly better products for customer needs. Gasum has the advantage of decades of experience and competence in the gas and energy sector. I certainly see this primarily as an opportunity to further develop our services while developing our company as a Nordic energy sector expert."

Gasgrid Finland is managed by the finance ministry.