Giedre Kurme, CEO at GET Baltic, the Baltic natural gas exchange, says such changes have led to positive results.
"The number of active exchange participants and concluded contacts is rising, competition among suppliers and liquidity are growing. Obviously, the new model creates new possibilities for all market participants, which will have a positive affect on end consumers as well," she said.
From this year, major regulated energy producers, nine of them in total, are obliged to buy at least half of their needed annual natural gas amount on the gas exchange.
The number of active exchange participants rose in the first two months of this year, with their number standing at 29 in January, including 16 gas sellers, and the total amount of gas traded in January-February stood at 1.12 TWh, compared to 1.08 TWh over the whole year of 2018.