Energy, Estonia, Gas, Good for Business, Oil, Transport

"We still consider the Port of Muuga to be the best location for building the regional LNG terminal to be supported with European funds," Vopak LNG development manager Joop Jonkers told Ärileht yesterday. "But if the support money goes to a competing project, we will build in Muuga a small terminal for bunkering ships, but also for selling LNG for example for cars."

Next to the Muuga port coal terminal, there is lot that was initially planned for the regional LNG terminal together with the state-owned electricity grid Elering and there a storage centre with 30,000 m3 capacity would be erected, which is similar to what Vopak will open in Göteborg, Sweden in 2015.

Before building the terminal in Muuga, Vopak will first wait or the decision on whom the European Union would sponsor to build the regional LNG terminal. "If a big terminal is built elsewhere, we will start transporting gas from there with small tankers to our terminal and then will sell it in the form of LNG too," explained Jonkers. "The natural gas pipeline is located just 1.5 km away from the Muuga Port, but gassifying LNG and selling it to the pipeline is not a part of our business plan since LNG is too expensive to compete with the cheap Russian natural gas sold via the pipeline.”