For decades now, the Baltic region was the first one to adapt quickly to the numerous changes in the gas market, with developments such as the Common Zone platform and the addition of GIPL and Baltic Pipe as key examples. In line with these developments, as a provider of development services, we recently secured a contract with the Estonian and Latvian gas TSOs Elering AS and AS Conexus Baltic Grid for the continued advancement of the Common Zone platform. The agreement, established in January 2023, is set to last for 36 months.
The past year has been an especially turbulent one for the European gas markets, with many countries facing the challenge of finding alternatives to Russian supply. In the Baltic states, Elering and Gas Grid Finland successfully added a second Floating Storage and Regasification Unit by December 2022 to provide an alternative gas supply market entry in the region. These changes resulted in different physical and market flows, and the operation of the region's sole gas storage had to be adapted to the new market circumstances and demand types. Additionally, market regulation and IT systems needed adjustments.
The Common Zone platform, which we first delivered in 2019, supports a single gas balancing zone in the Baltic states, beginning first with Estonia and Latvia and able to be smoothly expanded to Lithuania and Finland later on. As stated in the new agreement, we are glad to continue our journey with these operators and provide development services to quickly and efficiently adapt to new circumstances and are also committed to further automating and deepening the commercial IT integration among Finnish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian operators.
Business process automation among the region's TSOs has reached a high degree in the past period and remains resilient in crisis situations. Recently, during an accident in Lithuania's Amber Grid network, the Latvian and Lithuanian operator could seamlessly manage commercial flows during unprecedented circumstances. The difference between nomination and physical flow was covered from Conexus' side and went to the Operational Balancing Account, so Amber Grid did not have to limit any gas supply to its clients. An incredible feat in an almost impossible scenario.
In light of the uncertainty and agility required in the industry, it is now more important than ever for operators to be able to adapt quickly. Luckily, in the Baltic region, the grids are flexible and resilient, especially due to the recent modernization efforts.
We are proud to make our contribution by providing flexible and quickly available development capacities to adjust commercial IT systems to any regulatory change and market turbulence to come in the next three years. We also continue to support new innovative products, approaches, market design in the natural gas, biomethane, and hydrogen domain, and with our active IT support we can help to realize hydrogen and biogas strategies of the Baltic region.
