Baltic States – CIS, Energy, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Gas, Port, Transport

Photo: gasum.fi

Managers of Eesti Gaas' subsidiary EG Võrguteenuse and Gasum signed the corresponding agreement in Tallinn and just announced of it to the governments of both states too. According to the agreement, the gas companies think that since Finland has the biggest gas consumption among the four states on the Eastern coast of Gulf of Finland, the new terminal should be located in Finland.

Currently the decisive round of talks is under way for finding the location for the Finnish and Baltic states regional gas terminal. The location has to suit the European Commission that can grant funds for building it.

In the last round, three projects are being considered: Gasum-developed Finnish Inkoo, the Alexela Energia project in Paldiski, Estonia and the terminal in Muuga, near Tallinn, planned by the state-owned Elering and Port of Tallinn. The Paldiski terminal would be the cheapest, the size of investment would be around 301 million euros.

Now Estonia and Finland should agree to which of these they would ask for EU financing. Together with the LNG terminal, Estonian-Finnish gas pipeline Balticconnector should be built. Gasum and EG Võrguteenus agreed about the latter that it would proceed from Inkoo to Paldiski.

Tuesday was the deadline when developers of all three projects had to submit data to both states economy ministries. Estonia and Finland want to make the choice by March 6 to present it in Brussels a day later.