Lithuania’s prime minister Algirdas Butkevicius praised the efficiency of the country's Klaipeda LNG terminal and its key role in guaranteeing state’s energy security at a sitting of the Klaipeda LNG Terminal Implementation Project Commission.

“As of now, the terminal satisfies 90% of the demand by our gas consumers and gas supply companies,” he said.

According to the data provided in the sitting, Klaipeda regasified 518 GWh of natural gas last year but around 2.3 TWh already this year.

The facility is expected to benefit in 2017 from an LNG distribution station, through which gas will be delivered to consumers lacking access to pipeline gas. As part of the project, 5 LNG tanks are planned to be installed, each able to hold 1000 m³. The project will also include two truck filling stations at the LNG reloading stations and other necessary infrastructure.

The LNG from the onshore tanks will be trucked country-wide and used as fuel for ships, public transport and heating and power generation in remote areas with undeveloped gas supply infrastructure.

SC Klaipedos Nafta, operator of the Klaipeda LNG terminal, and German-Lithuanian company PPS Pipeline Systems acting on the basis of joint activity with the Czech Chart Ferox have signed the contract regarding the design and construction of the LNG onshore reloading station.

According to the agreement, all construction works shall be finished in the autumn of 2017.

Klaipedos Nafta has already signed the first contract with a future LNG distribution station user, the Estonian company JetGas. Hopes that the terminal would be more widely used, including by customers in the other former Soviet Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia, have not been justified so far. Low oil prices have fed through into term contract prices for pipeline gas, reducing the attractiveness of LNG. Norway's Statoil has a long-term contract to supply LNG but the plant is open for third party access.