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

Lietuvos Energija CEO Dalius Misiunas say that Blue LNG and a joint venture between Litgas, which is a gas trade subsidiary of Lietuvos Energija, and Norway's Statoil could cooperate after they start operating in the small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) market in Klaipeda.

"We are not ruling out some sort of cooperation, but there are no concrete decisions yet," he told BNS.

It is planned that Blue LNG will operate a small LNG vessel that will transport gas from Klaipedos Nafta's LNG terminal to its planned onshore LNG reloading station and will also engage in LNG bunkering operations.

According to Misiunas, the group could trade gas with Blue LNG or, possibly, lease its vessel if needed.

"This could be gas purchases by them from us, swap deals or the leasing of the ship," he said.

Klaipedos Nafta and Bomin Linde LNG established the joint venture last November. The Lithuanian company is to hold a 10% stake in Blue LNG with an option to increase it to 20% in the future. The join venture will lease a bunker supply vessel with a capacity of more than 7,000 cubic meters, which is expected to be built by early 2017.

Litgas and Statoil have been in talks on a join venture for small-scale LNG operations for a year now, but a final decision is yet to be made. The Lithuanian company expects to do so by the fall.