LNG turned out to be not so necessary for Kaliningrad: Lithuanian transit works non-stop

Since the beginning of the year, after the extension of the contract for gas transit through Lithuania, fuel supplies through the Baltic States have not stopped for a single day, unlike last year. At the same time, LNG shipments from the Baltic Portovaya complex for the exclave fell sharply.

This year Gazprom does not stop the transit of gas through Lithuania to the Kaliningrad region for a single day. This is evidenced by the data of the platform of the GTS operators of the EU ENTSOG countries. If last year, from January 1 to May 12, 721 million cubic meters were supplied to the exclave, then this year — 949 million cubic meters.

Obviously, this situation is related to LNG supplies to the Kaliningrad region. During this period last year, the LNG tanker — regasification terminal Marshal Vasilevsky was unloaded in the region at least twice.

This year — only once, in early May. On May 13, the vessel is located at Gazprom's Baltic LNG complex — Portovaya. And, obviously, it was unloaded earlier and the volumes were submitted to the storage of the Kaliningrad region.

This situation may be related to changes in Gazprom's tactics. Last year, negotiations were underway to extend the contract for the transit of Russian gas, and the Russian company could use active LNG supplies as an element of strengthening its position. Last year, the Lithuanian transit stopped seven times when the tanker supplied the next batch of LNG to the exclave system.

The increase in alternative supplies was also explained by the fact that the Gazprom complex fell under US sanctions and exports stopped. This year, by and large, the situation has not improved. In winter, three tankers left for Asia at once — Valera, Kunpeng and Perle. However, only one unloaded — in China. The remaining vessels continue to maneuver off the coasts of Singapore and China in anticipation of buyers. In terms of success in resuming shipments to end—users, Portovaya is significantly inferior to Arctic LNG-2. This project is also under sanctions, but it is increasing its gas export capacity to China.

It is not known whether Gazprom has achieved success using the trump card of alternative gas supplies to Kaliningrad in negotiations with Lithuania. It is known that Vilnius did not refuse transit and in December the Lithuanian operator announced the extension of the contract for five years and new conditions — the allowable income level was set at 30 million euros with a supply limit of 10.5 million cubic meters per day. Earlier, the Lithuanian Ministry of Energy stated that transit revenues amount to 20 million euros per year.

Alexey Grivach, Deputy Director of FNEB, noted to EADaily that transit through Lithuania is a basic option for Gazprom, since it is a mutually beneficial format for gas supply to the Kaliningrad region.