Vladimir Socor, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 9 Issue: 45 March 5, 2012
In 2011, Lithuania became the first European Union member country to enact EU energy market reform on national territory (see EDM, July 7, 2011). Lithuania opted for the most far-reaching version of this anti-monopoly legislation (“unbundling,” under the EU’s Third Energy Package). It requires separation of Russian Gazprom’s supply business from Gazprom’s co-ownership of pipelines in Lithuania. The existing, vertically integrated arrangement enables Gazprom to enjoy a 100 percent monopoly on Lithuania’s gas market
On March 2, 2012, Lithuania became the first among the EU’s “new” countries to contract for delivery of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal. The state-controlled Klaipedos Nafta port terminal operator signed with Hoegh LNG of Norway an agreement on the delivery, operation, and servicing of a floating terminal in Klaipeda port. Under the agreement, Hoegh will install the LNG reception terminal and re-gasification unit, with a capacity of 2 billion cubic meters (bcm) to 3 bcm of re-gasified product per year. The terminal will be outfitted with a storage unit, enabling seasonal flexibility in gas-trading operations.
[//Latvia and Estonia are also considering, each, the possibility of acquiring LNG terminals, either nationally or as a joint project of the three Baltic States.//]
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