Baltic States – CIS, Energy, Gas, Lithuania

Head of Gazprom Export Alexander Medvedev during his recent visit to Vilnius said that the price of natural gas for Lithuania is not going any lower because we do not consume as much we had promised, informs LETA/ELTA, referring to Lietuvos rytas.

Under the 2004 treaty, Lithuania has to consume 5 billion cubic metres of gas each year but the actual number stands at around 3 billion. Meanwhile, the prices to Latvia and Estonia were reduced, as Medvedev says, because the countries agreed on a longer-term gas supply. Lithuania, meanwhile, does not have any agreement on how much gas it would buy from Gazprom.

Lithuanian Institute of Energy has recently carried out research to answer the question of how much gas Lithuania will need to produce heat by 2020. The scientists estimate that each year the heating sector will buy less and less natural gas.

Yet, different sources give different numbers on the gas demand in the future. For instance, state-owned Klaipedos Nafta company which will be constructing a liquefied natural gas terminal is convinced that the gas demand in the future will be enormous. The company's experts forecast that in 2015 the use of natural gas in Lithuania might grow up to 5.12 billion cubic metres per year. The Ministry of Energy is rather cautious about predicting gas demand. The national energy strategy for 2020 vaguely speaks about from 1.6 to 3.7 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year, avoiding a more precise forecast.