Move is a first for an EU
nation as Baltics plot path
to energy independence
RIchARD MIlnE
norDIC anD BaLtIC CorresponDent
Lithuania has become the first EU country to cut off Russian gas supplies completely, with Estonia and Latvia also
temporarily stopping imports in
response to Moscow’s invasion of
Ukraine.
Lithuanian authorities said that, as of
last Friday, they would no longer import
Russian gas but instead rely on liquefied
natural gas shipped through Independence, a Lithuanian floating storage terminal. “From now . . . on Lithuania
won’t be consuming a cubic cm of toxic
Russian gas. Lithuania is the first EU
country to refuse Russian gas import,”
Ingrida Simonyte, Lithuania’s prime
minister, tweeted yesterday.
The three Baltic states have been
among the most vocal in urging the EU
to end its members’ dependence on
Russian oil and gas as countries pay
Moscow for petroleum even after its
invasion of Ukraine.
Lithuanian officials have said for the
past decade that energy independence
is the last step in cutting the country’s
ties with Moscow. It re-established its
formal independence in 1990, joined the
EU and Nato in 2004, and opened its
own LNG terminal in the port of Klaipeda in 2014.
Gitanas Nauseda, Lithuania’s president, said at the weekend: “Years ago,
my country made decisions that today
allow us with no pain to break energy
ties with the aggressor. If we can do it,
the rest of Europe can do it too.”
Last week, he told other European
countries to stop buying Russian oil and
gas “because the Kremlin regime uses
this money to finance the destruction of
Ukrainian cities and attacks on peaceful
civilians”.
Russian gas also stopped flowing into
Est onia and Latvia at the start of the
month, the head of Conexus Baltic Grid,
a Latvian natural gas storage operator,
said at the weekend.
Uldis Bariss, chair of Conexus, told
Latvian state radio that Russia’s
demand for gas payments in roubles
showed it could no longer be relied on
for supplies and would accelerate the
Baltics’ path to energy independence.
He added that there was an unusually
large amount of gas in storage at present
— almost equivalent to Latvia’s entire
needs for the winter period — but that
the Baltic states needed to build a second LNG terminal quickly to end fully
their dependence on Russian gas.
The Baltic states are also trying to
wean themselves off other forms of Russian energy and are aiming to synchronise their electricity grids with the rest
of Europe, rather than, as at present,
with Moscow and Belarus, by 2025.
The grid operators of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden last week
pledged to help the Baltic states if Russia
suddenly stopped exporting electricity
to them. “In such a scenario, frequency
support from the Nordic system will be
needed,” the four operators said in a
joint statement.
Other European countries are rushing
to end their dependence on Russian
petroleum. Germany has said it aims to
be “virtually independent” from Russian oil by the end of this year and from
gas by mid-2024.
Last month, EU leaders decided to
bulk-buy natural gas jointly from other
sources.