Energy, Estonia, Gas, Transport

"I have the experience of managing such big projects and I believe that this project also has a big future," said Siff.

Sillgas has reached the farthest among competitors in building the LNG terminal – it has environmental permits and is in the approval process of construction permits. "We hope to start construction work at the end of this year," said Siff.

A half of Sillgas OÜ belongs to Siff's company Primos and the other half to OÜ Ruutring that belongs to shareholders who so far worked on the development, Ulrica Steen (60%), Aat Kuum (20%) and former head of Sillgas Toomas Niinemäe (20%).

Siff didn’t agree to comment upon how excusive the business transaction was for him but noted that his participation and heading the project is a value in itself.

While competitors plan to build a nearly 320,000 cubic meters LNG terminal with the cost of nearly 600 million euros, with the financial support of the European Union, Sillgas's project is much bigger – 480,000 cubic metres and without EU or state support. The approximate cost of the project is evaluated to be a half a billion euros and it includes in addition to the LNG terminal also a 32,000 cubic metre liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanks fleet.

Siffs aid that bigger volume yields financial gains and there is no reason to fear that would be too many LNG terminals. "While we opened the first oil terminal 20 years ago, now there are already 8, i.e. I think that there is room for more than one LNG terminal in Estonia and in our region," said Siff.