Lithuania Mulls LNG Exports
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Domestic glut prompts Lithuania government to consider selling-off surplus gas supplies, reports Reuters. Lithuanian LNG importer Litgas could be about to start re-exporting LNG bought.
Lithuania opened an LNG import terminal in 2014 and started exporting natural gas to neighbouring Estonia earlier this year, breaking the supply monopoly of Gazprom.
The Ministry of Energy forecasts that, in 2016, the required gas amount in the terminal will exceed the total LNG demand of regulated energy producers.
The decrease of gas consumption results in bigger terminal maintenance costs for its users, therefore, the ministry wants to place the tax burden also on those users who have nothing to do with the terminal.
"We want a possibility to sell the surplus gas from Statoil not only in Lithuania, but also in the world markets," a spokesman for Litgas said.
"The mandatory purchase model is not sustainable," the company said in a statement.