The European Commission has approved the compensation granted by Lithuania to LITGAS for supplying a mandatory quantity of LNG to the LNG terminal in Klaipėda.
Before this approval, in November 2013, the Commission approved an aid scheme to support the construction and operation of an LNG terminal at the Klaipėda seaport in Lithuania.
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Since then, the LNG terminal has been proved crucial in the diversification of gas supplies and security of supply in Lithuania.
In June 2018, Lithuania informed the Commission of some changes to the aid scheme approved in 2013, which are the following:
- To ensure security of supply, the LNG terminal must be kept operational, which needs constant deliveries of LNG and its continuous regasification. So, in January 2016, Lithuania modified the initial scheme and entrusted LITGAS, a liquefied gas supplier with a public service obligation to ensure the supply of a mandatory quantity of LNG to the terminal in Klaipėda;
- Lithuania introduced a “purchase obligation” where heat and electricity generators were obliged by law to purchase a certain quantity of gas from LITGAS. However, considering the developments on the gas market, Lithuania considers that, as of January 2019, the purchase obligation will no longer be necessary and can be abolished. Thus, LITGAS will sell its gas directly on the market.
The Commission found that these modifications will contribute to enhancing competition on the Lithuanian gas market and has therefore approved both the scheme currently in force for the period from 2016 until the end of the year 2018 and the modified scheme for the period from 2019 until the end of 2024.
According to the EU, the Klaipeda seaport will contribute to the EU’s Energy Union goals to reduce energy import dependency by diversifying supply and creating an interconnected EU wide energy market.
The Klaipeda seaport has already received its first LNG shipment from the US, August 2018.
