LITHUANIA – NEWS
Lithuanian Energy Minister Dainius Kravys has said that the Baltic states will try to stop imports of liquefied natural gas from Russia, the BBC reports.
“We have reached a consensus that liquefied natural gas should not be imported to the three Baltic states. This is, as I said, a decision of the three Baltic states because there are no European sanctions on liquefied natural gas,” he said. – “Latvia’s position is also similar, so we will look for common solutions how we can move forward.”
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), unlike liquefied natural gas, is not subject to sanctions. Last year, Russian exporters reportedly more than doubled their LPG sales to the Baltic states.
Floating LNG terminal in Finland
A floating LNG terminal arrived in Finland late last year to replace Russian pipeline gas supplies. The Exemplar vessel, which arrived at the Finnish port of Inkoo, is equipped with a facility to regasify liquefied natural gas and inject it into the pipeline system.
Russia stopped supplying gas to Finland through the pipeline in May 2022 after the country refused to pay in roubles. The requirement to switch to roubles was imposed by Moscow on buyers from “unfriendly countries” to circumvent Western sanctions.
To make up the deficit and avoid having to buy Russian gas, Finland signed a 10-year lease agreement with the US company Excelerate Energy for an LNG terminal. The cost of leasing the Exemplar vessel is about 126,000 euros a day.
