The new LNG terminal located in Lithuania鈥檚 third city, Klaipeda is one of the first LNG distribution stations in the Baltic Sea which has been crucial for Lithuania's energy bargaining power, according to CEO of Lithuania's national oil company.
"Implementing a project like our LNG terminal in four years was very challenging and聽we sacrificed a lot for it. It took a lot of effort聽to handle this hard task,"聽Mantas Bartuska, CEO of Klaipedos Nafta, Lithuania's聽national oil and gas company said.
"We now see the LNG terminal project has also a strategic importance for the entire Baltic region. Until we took the important steps for the terminal,聽we were paying one of the highest natural gas prices in Europe,"聽Bartuska told The Anadolu Agency.
Bartuska explained the project was started in 2010 and the decision was made by the government because of the project鈥檚 strategic importance for the country.
"It was clear that we needed an alternative natural gas supply to have energy security and to have better pricing聽opportunities. The government made an important聽decision,"聽he said.聽
The planned cost of constructing the LNG terminal was 130聽million euros, but in the end Lithuania spent 101.4 million euros for the聽project. For a small country with a small budget, this project and its costs were very important and strategic.
According to Bartuska, Lithuania does not have a goal to change its energy supply by 100 percent, but rather the country seeks to聽receive gas from other pipelines.聽
As part of the country's drive to diversity its gas portfolio, Bartuska said that Norway will help Lithuania with this task in聽the deal with聽Norway鈥檚 energy giant Statoil supplying LNG to Lithuania for five years.
Lithuania will import 0.54 billion cubic聽meters of natural gas from Statoil per year which will cover around 20 percent of Lithuania鈥檚 total consumption. Last year this amounted to three聽billion cubic聽meters.
"We have a LNG gas price聽which is market-based and now we have something realistic to compare with other prices,"聽he noted.
"Currently Lithuania has similar gas prices to聽other Baltic countries聽from Russia's Gazprom聽gas.聽Furthermore, from an energy perspective we are more independent,"聽he added.
"A logical natural gas price is what we need and the LNG terminal helps Lithuania receive a real market price," he stated.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency