Energy, EU – Baltic States, Lithuania, Nuclear power plant

"We've halted the Visaginas plant project for some time because the market situation is not that favorable. In addition we are waiting, before we can move forward with the project, for our electricity interconnections in Lithuania with Poland and Sweden to start working normally and prices on the electricity market to fall into place and become more stable," Masiulis told BNS.

Masiulis said there are several topics hanging fire on the Baltic energy market now that are lacking in conclusiveness and clarity and that probably the topic of the nuclear plant will be dealt with further more seriously half a year or one year from now.

Masiulis observed that even though during his term in office the Estonian government has been a constructive cooperation partner in the Visaginas N-plant project, he can nevertheless see that Estonia is not as much interested in the N-plant as Lithuania.

"While I've had good cooperation with my Estonian colleagues, it can be understood that since the production of shale oil has very good prospects for the Estonian state and there's oversupply on the Estonian market already, additional energy in the form of a N-plant is not the first necessity for Estonians," Masiulis said.

Lithuania meanwhile would need the N-plant more because the country views itself as a nuclear energy state and its practical need for additional energy supply from the viewpoint of security is bigger.

Masiulis said he has had constructive and substantive cooperation with both Estonian ministers, Urve Palo and Kristen Michal. For sure, it has never been noted that someone of them had intentionally hindered the project as some media have alleged, the Lithuanian minister added.

The Lithuanian government has sent to their Estonian colleagues the cost and feasibility analysis of the power plant and is waiting for a response.

The new N-plant at Visaginas is planned to have a capacity of 1,250-1,300 megawatts per unit and under current market conditions a MWh of electric energy produced at the plant would cost about 50 euros.

Disclaimer: The trip of the BNS journalist to Lithuania was paid for by the European Commission.