Lithuania said Tuesday that it planned to bring Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia on board in a liquefied natural gas project, as the region strives to cut its dependence on supplies from Russia.
Lithuania said Tuesday that it planned to bring Baltic neighbors Latvia
and Estonia on board in a liquefied natural gas project, as the region strives
to cut its dependence on supplies from Russia.
"We have to build the terminal with our resources but thereafter we will
share the terminal with
Latvia
and
Estonia
,
proportionally to (the respective) consumption of natural gas," Energy
Minister Arvydas Sekmokas told reporters.
"Of course, they will have to pay for the Lithuanian investment," he
added.
In July,
Lithuania
's
government approved plans to build an LNG terminal off the Baltic
port
of
Klaipeda
by
2012. It tasked state-owned company Klaipedos Nafta with drawing up details of
the project.
Sekmokas said the European Commission has backed the idea of a single LNG
terminal for all three
Baltic states
.
But he cautioned that financial support from the European Union - which the
Baltic trio joined in 2004 - would only be possible after the bloc's post-2014
budget is in place.
He also said it was premature to discuss the cost of the project.
The three
Baltic states
have been seeking to reduce
Russia
's role
in their energy markets, a legacy of their five decades as Soviet republics
before the communist bloc collapsed in 1991.
Russian giant Gazprom is
Lithuania
's
only gas supplier, via a pipeline across
Belarus
, and
the country has been affected by feuds between
Moscow
and
Minsk
.
In June, its supplies were cut by more than 40% amid a row between
Belarus
and
Russia
over
gas payments and transit fees.
Lithuania
is
also eyeing a separate LNG terminal project with
Belarus
.
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