In a situation where the government has essentially backtracked on its decision to create an LNG receiving capacity in Paldiski from the fall of this year, and where the volumes of the Klaipeda LNG terminal have been shared for a long time only between Lithuania, Poland and Latvia, Estonian gas consumers must be guaranteed preferential access to Finland's Inkoo terminal, the Estonian Gas Association announced.
"Yesterday it was publicly announced for the first time that the LNG ship leased by the Finns would not come to Estonia, today it is time to take the next step and say that no LNG ship is likely to reach Paldiski this winter. Today, only a few percent of the 100 percent probability in spring remain," said Heiko Heitur, CEO of the Estonian Gas Association.
"We are in late autumn and the time window for chartering another ship 50 days before the completion of the port has closed as of today. If there is no way between the floating terminal's hauling pier and the gas tanker, it essentially means that, contrary to the previous decisions of the government and what is written in the coalition agreement, the LNG receiving capacity in Paldiski will not be created by the fall of this year," said Heitur.
"In such a situation, today we have to establish the terms of use of the Finnish terminal very precisely and exclude the possibility of withdrawing from the agreements, as it has already happened twice - in 2014 the Finns left the terminal unbuilt and now backed out of bringing the ship to Paldisk. In addition to the Minister of Economy, the gas market expects the visible contribution of the security of supply manager and terminal project manager Elering in this process and reminds the system manager that "we" still means Estonia, not Finland," added Heitur.
"Otherwise, we will face the upcoming winter with only blue eyes and with Elering Excel. If a mild winter comes and the situation does not escalate, it cannot be ruled out that we might get lucky. But is there a country, a company or a person in the world that builds its future on 'maybe'? Gas is needed primarily by industry, the future of our industry depends on today's decisions and agreements," Heitur said.
Yesterday, the Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Riina Sikkut Riina Sikkut is an Estonian politician. announced that the promised LNG terminal will not come to the port of Paldiski, but it will go to Finland.
The LNG floating terminal should start operating at the end of the year as planned. For this purpose, the Finnish network operator Gasgrid Finland concluded a ten-year lease for the ship Exemplar, which has an annual regasification capacity of 35 terawatt-hours.