Energy, Energy Market, Estonia, Gas, Gas Market , Markets and Companies

Eesti Energia has been selling natural gas to corporate customers for almost three years now and has a market share of 20% on the natural gas market as a whole. Getting the same ratio on the household market would mean Eesti Energia taking at least one in five household customers away from Eesti Gaas in the coming few years.

Karla Agan, head of energy sales at Eesti Energia, said entering the natural gas market means for Eesti Energia breaking the monopoly on the one hand and expanding its market from the Baltic countries to the Baltic Sea countries on the other.

"As things stand now, they would just tell you [at Eesti Gaas] that you are in one price group and that's it – we will let you know when the price changes. We presume of course that Eesti Gaas will take competition seriously and will change its pricing policy. However, we are confident that we can offer a competitive price," Agan said.

Eesti Gaas board member Margus Kaasik admitted that the entry of Eesti Energia into the household retail market will definitely make them put in more effort to please their household customers.

"From next year we too will offer different packages, but the price of the personal offer will nevertheless depend rather on the amount consumed. The [prices] will be different from what you can see on our website now, they will be more client focused," Kaasik said. He added that Eesti Gaas will also look at customer management in pricing, offering a lower price to customes whose settlements are handled as automatically as possible.

Eesti Gaas has 1,600 corporate customers and 42,000 household customers at this point. There are altogether approximately 77,000 gas consumption points in Estonia.