In 2011, Lithuania became the first European Union member country to enact EU energy market reform on national territory (see EDM, July 7, 2011). Lithuania opted for the most far-reaching version of this anti-monopoly legislation (“unbundling,” under the EU’s Third Energy Package). It requires separation of Russian Gazprom’s supply business from Gazprom’s co-ownership of pipelines in Lithuania. The existing, vertically integrated arrangement enables Gazprom to enjoy a 100 percent monopoly on Lithuania’s gas market
On March 2, 2012, Lithuania became the first among the EU’s “new” countries to contract for delivery of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal. The state-controlled Klaipedos Nafta port terminal operator signed with Hoegh LNG of Norway an agreement on the delivery, operation, and servicing of a floating terminal in Klaipeda port. Under the agreement, Hoegh will install the LNG reception terminal and re-gasification unit, with a capacity of 2 billion cubic meters (bcm) to 3 bcm of re-gasified product per year. The terminal will be outfitted with a storage unit, enabling seasonal flexibility in gas-trading operations.
[//Latvia and Estonia are also considering, each, the possibility of acquiring LNG terminals, either nationally or as a joint project of the three Baltic States.//]
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