Vilnius, Lithuania (AP)-Lithuania says it has completely stopped importing gas from Russia, which seems to be the first of 27 EU countries to use Russian gas to ease its reliance on energy in Moscow.
“In order to achieve full energy independence from Russia’s gas, in response to Russia’s energy blackmail in the war in Europe and Ukraine, Lithuania has completely abandoned Russia’s gas,” the Lithuanian Energy Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, and added that the measure was effective. from the beginning. April.
Lithuania was able to reduce Russia’s gas imports to zero on Saturday, a step toward achieving energy independence in the 2.8 million former Soviet republics, the ministry said.
“We are the first Gazprom supplier to the EU to gain independence from Russia’s gas supplies, and this is the result of many years of consistent energy policy and timely infrastructure decisions,” the Energy Minister said. Dinius Creves.
Lithuanian President Gitana Nauseda posted an optimistic message on Twitter On his behalf and invited other European countries to do the same.
“From this month, there will be no more Russian gas in Lithuania. A few years ago my country made decisions that now allow us without pain to cut off the energy link with the aggressor. If we can do it, the rest of Europe can do the same! ” Nauseda wrote on Twitter.
Almost 100% of Lithuanian gas came from Russia’s gas imports in 2015, but the situation has changed significantly in recent years since the country built an offshore LNG import terminal in the port city of Klaipeda in 2014. .
The Ministry of Energy said that from now on gas for Lithuanian domestic consumption will be imported through the Klaipeda LNG terminal.
Last year, approximately 26% of Lithuania’s gas supply came from Russia’s pipeline, while 62% came to the Klaipeda LNG terminal, while the remaining 12% was imported from a gas depot in the nearby Latvia.
Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia are also highly dependent on Russian gas, but the Latvian natural gas storage operator said none of the three Baltic states imported Russian gas on April 2.
Uldis Baris, CEO of Conexus Baltic Grid, told Latvian media on Saturday that the Baltic gas market is currently served by underground gas supplies in Latvia.
Last month, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonite said the Klaipeda LNG terminal would not have enough capacity to supply gas to all three Baltic states.
As a solution, the Estonian government offered to build an LNG terminal with Latvia and neighboring Scandinavian Finland in the Estonian port city of Paldisk, not far from the capital Tallinn.
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Yari Tanner contributed to this report in Helsinki, Finland.
Source: Huffpost
