Inkoo terminal operator Floating LNG Terminal Finland (FLTF) allocated only seven out of 20 slots for 2026 during the recent annual procedure, the company announced on 17 October.

FLTF had already reduced the amount of scheduled slots down from the preliminary estimate of 23 to 20 due to “expected market demand”, but only allocated seven of these. The operator will accept requests for the remaining 2026 slots, which will become ‘spot slots’ , on a first-come-first-serve basis from 24 October.

In comparison, the annual procedure for 2025 held last year allocated 11 slots out of 19, even despite a dry-docking period of around six weeks in mid-August to October. The current 2025 schedule shows a total of 13 reserved slots, meaning at least two were purchased on a spot basis.

Utilization of the Inkoo terminal has declined this year. In 2023, the terminal had received 18 cargoes and in 2024 the number increased to 24 cargoes, predominantly from the US and Norway, data from ICIS LNG Edge shows. In 2025, so far, Inkoo has received only 10.

Sendout from Inkoo to the Finnish grid averaged 53 GWh/d in 2024, but a much lower 31 GWh/d in January-July this year before the departure of the FSRU for drydocking.

One trader noted that the competing terminal in Lithuania, Klaipeda, is so well-utilised that it is “easier and cheaper to buy gas in Lithuania or Latvia-Estonia and move it to Finland, using Inkoo mostly for season/peak-shaving play”. Another noted that Inkoo is the “second choice in terms of terminals in the Baltics”, so “no one really saw the rush” as booking spot capacity is still available. A third reiterated this idea, saying “demand is just not there and the terminal is not the cheapest one”. Inkoo is one of the most expensive terminals in Europe, with a current regasification tariff of €2.46/MWh as well as a fuel-gas fee of up to 3%.

FLTF commercial manager Rasmus Hellman told ICIS he did not think there was “any single reason” for the result of the allocation procedure, and in previous years spot bookings have supported the annual, something FLTF “hope[s] to see for 2026 as well”.

Finnish gas demand has been gradually declining over the past few years as a result of the gas price shock in 2022 and the subsequent conversion of many industrial users and heat plants to alternative fuels, as well as the closure of some gas-fired power plants.

Remaining gas-fired units have had their space in the overall power mix squeezed particularly since the start-up of Europe’s largest single nuclear unit, the 1.6 GW Olkiluoto 3 reactor, in April 2023. In 2024 gas accounted for less than 2% of total Finnish power production and so far in 2025 only 1%, compared with nearly 7% in 2021, according to data from Fraunhofer ISE.
Source: ICIS Editorial, https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2025/10/17/11146874/finnish-inkoo-terminal-2026-lng-slot-demand-weak/