Lithuania completely bans the import of Russian LNG

Lithuania has banned any import, loading and regasification of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) at all facilities.

On Thursday, October 26, the Seimas of Lithuania adopted amendments to the Law on natural gas: 111 parliamentarians voted “for”, six abstained, reports  LRT.

During the consideration of changes in the committees of the Seimas, the Deputy Minister of Energy Inga Zhilenye stated that Russian gas is delivered to Lithuanian facilities by tankers from Poland. According to her, about 22 gigawatt-hours (GW) of Russian gas are imported in this way per year, while 100 GW per day is regasified at the Klaipeda LNG terminal.

Amendments to the law on natural gas were prepared by the chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Seimas Laurinas Kasciunas and the Minister of Energy Dainius Kravis. Earlier, the minister reported that gas was transported from Poland by Cryogas M&T Poland and supplied to two companies with regasification plants.

The ministry did not name the companies to which Cryogas M&T Poland supplied gas. The heads of the companies Kelmės pienas and Marijampolė pieno konservai confirmed in June that they buy gas from Cryogas, but assured that it is not Russian.

The import of LNG from Russia to Lithuania through the Klaipėda terminal has been suspended since March 2022, and since April of the same year, the import of Russian gas through pipelines has also been stopped. The country left only gas transit to Kaliningrad.