Finnish Gasum Gains on Gas Transport
Finnish state utility Gasum sees gas transport as a long-term growth business, it said May 2 as it reported a dip in Q1 profits from last year.
It is also preparing for the opening up of the Finnish gas market at the start of 2020, which is when the transmission business will be unbundled into a separate company. Work related to the opening up of the gas market will continue throughout the year.
”Our financial performance was in line with our expectations during Q1. Our revenue increased to €396.6mn ($437.5mn) in the period under review, up 2% year on year (2018: €390.5mn). Our operating profit was €61.1mn, down from the €72.8mn posted for the corresponding period a year earlier. The result was affected by the sales volumes of an exceptionally cold spell in the reference period," it said.
It said clean gas is growing strongly, and this will continue, above all in maritime transport and heavy-duty road transport as action to curb climate change calls for a transition to cleaner solutions. In the years ahead, Gasum said it would be investing in the development of the Nordic gas market and infrastructure.
Gasum also announced the expansion of an important road transport partnership with Ikea Finland in Q1. This year will see new gas filling stations serving lighter vehicles in conjunction with the Ikea stores in Raisio, Kuopio and Tampere, Finland.
During the period under review, Gasum’s bunkering vessel Coralius performed its 100th ship-to-ship bunkering of LNG.
The size of the Nordic heavy-duty vehicle filling station network will become many times bigger in the next few years. Switching to gas in heavy-duty transport will enable major transport emission cuts.
The City of Lappeenranta will introduce low-emission gas buses and several transport companies have taken gas-fuelled heavy-duty vehicles and biogas-fueled delivery vehicles into service. The increasing use of gas-fuelled vehicles promotes significant emission cuts in transport, it said.
The year also began with a new company structure to support its Nordic strategy. Energy market services provided under its portfolio management and trading business support its energy-sector partners in the changing market, and demand for market services such as those relating to electricity trading is growing, it said.