Lithuania to acquire LNG import terminal from Hoegh LNG

VILNIUS (Reuters) – Lithuania has decided to acquire a floating storage and regasification vessel (FSRU), which has served as an LNG import terminal since 2014, from Norway’s Hoegh LNG, the terminal’s operator, Klaipedos Nafta, said on Friday.

The shareholders of the state-controlled company have approved the exercise of an option to acquire the FSRU Independence for $153 million after 10 years of lease, it added, a day after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Klaipedos Nafta said the purchase would ensure Lithuania’s energy independence by continuing to provide an alternative to pipeline gas imports from Russia.

“The terminal has served its purpose, and today we are free from dependence on Russian gas … by having diversified our supplies,” the company said in statement.

“Energy security and independence are even more important in the context of the current geopolitical tensions,” it added.

Until 2014, Lithuania and other two Baltic states, Latvia and Estonia, were completely dependent on supplies from Russia, their former Soviet master.

Last year, gas imports via the LNG terminal, mainly from the United States, met 68% of the country’s demand, data from Lithuania’s gas system operator Amber Grid showed.

Lithuania has said it could also supply natural gas to Poland via a newly built pipeline, expected to start operations by mid-2022, in addition to a possibility to supply gas to its Baltic neighbours and Finland.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, writing by Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by Gwladys Fouche and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)