Latvijas Gāze Group Consolidated and Jsc "Latvijas Gāze" Annual Report for 2020
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
LATVIJAS GĀZE GROUP CONSOLIDATED AND JSC "LATVIJAS GĀZE" ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2020 Prepared in compliance with the International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union Riga 2021 CONTENTS CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 2 LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS ............................................................................................................................................................ 3 COUNCIL OF THE JSC “LATVIJAS GĀZE” .................................................................................................................................. 4 MANAGEMENT BOARD OF THE JSC “LATVIJAS GĀZE” ................................................................................................... 5 LATVIJAS GĀZE GROUP IN SHORT................................................................................................................................................ 6 STRATEGY AND OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................................................................ 6 LATVIJAS GĀZE GROUP`S FOCUS ................................................................................................................................................ 7 SHARES AND SHAREHOLDERS OF THE JSC “LATVIJAS GĀZE” ................................................................................. 9 LATVIJAS GĀZE GROUP FACTS AND FIGURES ................................................................................................................... 12 MANAGEMENT REPORT .................................................................................................................................................................... 15 STATEMENT OF THE BOARD RESPONSIBILITY ................................................................................................................. 24 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ................................................................................................................................................................. 25 CORPORATE INFORMATION .................................................................................................................................................... 25 STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME ................................................................................................................. 26 BALANCE SHEET ............................................................................................................................................................................... 27 CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY ........................................................................................ 29 COMPANY’S STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY .................................................................................................. 30 STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS ................................................................................................................................................. 31 NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ................................................................................................................................... 32 CONSOLIDATED CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT (NON FINANCIAL REPORT) ...... 75 BOARD STATEMENT ....................................................................................................................................................................... 76 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................................................. 77 10 PRINCIPLES OF UN GLOBAL COMPACT ..................................................................................................................... 78 HUMAN RIGHTS ................................................................................................................................................................................. 80 EMPLOYEES ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 85 ENVIRONMENT .................................................................................................................................................................................. 89 ANTI-CORRUPTION ....................................................................................................................................................................... 103 INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT ........................................................ ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. LATVIJAS GĀZE GROUP CONSOLIDATED AND JSC "LATVIJAS GĀZE" ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2020 2 LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS Dear shareholder, In 2020, Latvijas Gāze group succeeded in attaining a positive result despite the challenges brought on by the market conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic and a consecutive warm winter in Europe have caused a significant natural gas demand drop. As a result, natural gas prices dived to multi-year low levels in summer. Liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) deliveries to Europe increased substantially, as Europe became a swing buyer during natural gas oversupply period. Continuous low natural gas price environment eventually forced multiple LNG suppliers to cancel an ample amount of LNG loadings in order to minimize losses associated with LNG deliveries. LNG cancellation in summer and economic recovery in 2H 2020 brought balance to the natural gas market and natural gas prices commenced a rapid recovery in autumn. Higher winter-summer spread intensified competition for capacity at the Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage Facility. Regulated storage tariff for one year bundled unit capacity product was multiple times lower compared to winter-summer spread and costs for storing natural gas in other European countries. The storage capacity was allocated based on the number of participants and the requested volume, rather than the price offered. Consequently, slightly less storage capacity was allocated to JSC “Latvijas Gāze” compared to last year. Natural gas forwards demonstrated a significantly tighter market in 2021, thus a decision was taken to defer the injected underground storage inventory to next year. However, this had a negative impact on Q4 2020, as JSC “Latvijas Gāze” decided to use pipeline supply instead of storage supply. Nonetheless, this decision will ultimately improve future period results in future periods. Competition in the Baltic region has intensified to high levels during summer as LNG supply increased dramatically. LNG oversupply in the world pushed producers to deliver gas in Europe and Baltic region at sunk costs. Despite the fact that 2020 showed high price magnitude within a year and extreme daily volatility, it was observed that business players offered aggressive pricing during summer when lower natural gas prices prevailed. JSC “Latvijas Gāze” for the first time in history implemented profit over volume strategy and decreased long term sales contracts in the portfolio during low price environment. Apart from warmer winter, this was the second factor that decreased natural gas sales. The opening of the Finish gas market since 1st January 2020 provided both opportunities and challenges for all natural gas traders. Balticconnector pipeline has not even come close to reaching its announced technical capacity during 2020. As a result, deliveries from Baltic region to Finland were heavily congested during winter season months. Our risk management approach limited committed sales to Finland and most of sales agreements were structured in a flexible way - taking into account potential congestion. Despite congestion the company successfully sold sizeable amount of natural gas in Finland. JSC “Latvijas gaze” successfully implemented up-to-date IT solutions, including customer portal and new billing system. The migration of 442 thousand customers’ contracts to new billing system was finalised, providing a competitive solution for customer service. The new IT solutions will allow significantly cut operating expenses in the medium term while staying customer oriented and focusing to increase the customer satisfaction at the same time. In the strive to contribute to greenhouse carbon reduction Latvijas Gāze group continues to develop CNG business in transport sector as CNG emits less CO2 than liquid fossil fuels. Furthermore, our strong team continues to exploit opportunities in renewable projects despite the fact that government incentives remain limited at present. Yours sincerely, Aigars Kalvītis LATVIJAS GĀZE GROUP CONSOLIDATED AND JSC "LATVIJAS GĀZE" ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2020 3 COUNCIL OF THE JSC “LATVIJAS GĀZE” Council’s term of office from 9 October 2019 till 8 October 2022. Kirill Seleznev (Кирилл Селезнев), 1974 Chairman of the Council Since 2003, Head of Gas and Liquid Hydrocarbon Marketing and Processing Division, Member of the Management Committee at PJSC “Gazprom” Juris Savickis, 1946 Oliver Giese, 1967 Vice-Chairman of the Council Vice-Chairman of the Council Since 1996, President of LLC “ITERA Since 2016, Senior Vice President for Latvija” Infrastructure Management at Uniper SE (formerly E.ON Global Commodities SE, Düsseldorf, Germany) Matthias Kohlenbach, 1969 David Stephen