Lithuanian government considers options to cut LNG terminal’s costs

DELFI / Orestas Gurevičius

However, Butkevičius would not say if these options include purchasing the terminal’s floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), which it leases from Norway‘s Hoegh LNG.

“This is confidential information,” he told reporters when asked if the acquisition of the FSRU was being considered.

Butkevičius spoke after chairing a meeting of a commission in charge of the LNG terminal project implementation.

Klaipėdos Nafta (Klaipėda Oil), the terminal’s operator, will have a month to analyse three options and choose the best one for lowering the costs, which currently amount to around 61 million euros annually, Butkevičius told reporters after the commission’s meeting.

“The aim is to ensure that the LNG terminal does not increase the costs and the price of gas in Lithuania starting from the autumn of next year (when the payment of compensation to consumers for overpaying for Gazprom’s gas should end),” he said.

Energy Minister Rokas Masiulis made it clear that Hoegh LNG and other companies would have to be involved in discussions in order to cut the terminal’s costs.

“Any reduction (of costs) will involve third parties. Hoegh LNG and the servicing companies,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Under a contract signed in March 2012, the lease costs Klaipėdos Nafta 189,000 US dollars daily, or 68.9 million dollars per year, or 689 million dollars over ten years.

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