Lithuania said it has completely abandoned imports of Russian gas and will now satisfy the country’s entire gas demand via the FSRU-based LNG import facility in the port of Klaipeda.
“Lithuania’s gas transmission system has been operating without Russian gas imports since the beginning of this month,” the country’s energy ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Supplies coming to the Klaipedos Nafta-operated LNG terminal would satisfy all Lithuanian gas demand, it said.
Klaipedos Nafta recently said that its customers have fully booked the LNG terminal’s regasification capacity for this gas year ending September 30, 2022.
The 170,000-cbm FSRU Independence would receive 20 large LNG cargoes in the March-September period.
Besides these 20 shipments, the FSRU would also perform one reloading operation, it said.
KN is also considering expanding the LNG terminal’s technical regasification capacity from the current 3.75 billion cubic meters to 5 bcm in the long term.
In March, KN said that it had suspended LNG deliveries from Russia’s independent producer Novatek.
The energy ministry also said in the statement that besides the LNG terminal, Lithuania can also receive supplies via the gas link with Latvia, and from May 1 – through the gas link with Poland.
Minister of Energy Dainius Kreivys said that this is a “turning point” in the history of Lithuania’s energy independence.
“We are the first EU country among Gazprom’s supply countries to gain independence from Russian gas supplies, and this is the result of a multi-year coherent energy policy and timely infrastructure decisions,” Kreivys said.
The ministry also said that this move means the country was insulated from a recent demand from Russia to pay for gas in roubles.
Also, this decision would not affect the transit of Russian gas to the Kaliningrad exclave, it said.
