Energy, EU – Baltic States, Gas, Gas Market , Lithuania, Port

The Energy Ministry proposes to halve the number of shipments to two next years, from the current four, to reduce the costs by more than 20 mln euros and cut the so-called LNG terminal security component by around 30%. All these costs are paid for by gas consumers.  

Outgoing Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said it was through the Energy Ministry's efforts that talks with Equinor had been resumed. 

Outgoing Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas described the current situation as "an inherited abscess on the healthy gas market", for which gas, electricity and heat consumers must pay. 

"Our proposal is to set it at two shipments, because these shipments bring a loss of between 25 mln and 30 mln euros for the following year. If such trends continue, this could generate a loss of up to 200 mln euros by the expiry of the contract in 2024," he said. 

The Energy Ministry said in November that it was suggesting that the government significantly reduce the LNG terminal's costs for consumers.

If the Seimas and the government give their approval, the costs for consumers for ensuring the Klaipeda terminal's minimum operation would go down from around 25 mln euros this year to 6.5 mln to 7 mln euros next year.

It means that most of the losses incurred currently due to the extremely expensive Equinor gas will be passed on to the state-controlled energy group Ignitis Grupe, unless it renegotiates the contract with Equinor to reduce the price of gas or the number of cargoes.

Ignitis says it has already initiated talks with the Norwegian supplier.