Brussels, 24/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - During the visit to Vilnius, on Tuesday 23 February, of the Vice-President of the Commission with responsibility for the Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic, the Lithuanian Prime Minister, Rokas Masiulis, asked him for the EU's support to finance the purchase of the floating storage and re-gasification unit which has served as an LNG terminal in the port of Klaipeda since late 2014.
“One of Lithuania's interest is to purchase the terminal. That would help us to further reduce the price of gas, because we would then be able to spread the costs over a longer period of time. We expect that the cost of the terminal could go down by another 20%”, Masiulis said, reported by the local press.
“At this stage, we're talking about the very principle (of EU financial support). These are preliminary discussions”, he went on, declining to provide any further clarifications about the funds needed for this acquisition or the level of EU financial support hoped for.
The principal unit of the LNG terminal at Klaipeda, which was commissioned in late October 2014 (see EUROPE 11186), is a floating storage vessel 300 metres long with a regasification unit on board. Known as Independance, and with a capacity of 170,000 m3 of LNG, it has been leased for 10 years by the Lithuanian oil and gas company Klaipedos Nafta from the Norwegian company Hoegh LNG.
According to the Lithuanian press, Klapeidos Nafta is attempting to borrow €300 million from international banks to finance the lease and acquisition of the floating vessel, the 10-year lease for which is costing nearly €614,465 million. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)