Baltic States – CIS, Energy, Gas, Legislation, Lithuania, Transport

"Even if the terminal is built there (in Kaliningrad), we will lose money for transit in 10 years," Masiulis said at a meeting of the parliament's Commission for Energy last week.

In his words, the 10-year contract on gas transit to Kaliningrad, which was signed by Amber Grid and Russia's Gazprom in late 2015, envisages a provision of "take or pay": "Even if they do not take our gas, they will pay us money for it. In any case, the model will work for 10 years."

Gazprom annually pays about 13-15 million euros per year for transit 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Lithuania's Amber Grid.

Arvydas Galinis, one of the authors of the National Energy Strategy, said the Kaliningrad LNG terminal was not taken into consideration during the preparation of the strategy.

"If Russians build the terminal, it is possible they can terminate the supplies of gas by pipelines. (…) Will Russians be able to force us to buy gas via its pipeline? It is up to us. If Russians sell for less, we may want to buy from them, if we do not decide otherwise because of political reasons. They cannot force us," Galinis, a scientist at the Lithuanian Energy Institute, said at the parliament.

In January, the Russian government ordered the completion of the LNG terminal and pipeline in Kaliningrad by the end of 2017, while Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev signed a decree in May, envisaging expansion of the boundaries of the Kaliningrad port to include new territories.