For example, the rate of return on investments of Lietuvos Dujos (Lithuanian Gas) in the transmission system infrastructure is 8.05 percent, Klaipėdos Nafta said in its answers to the fertilizer manufacturer Achema, which is part of Achemos Grupė (Achema Group). Achema is Klaipėdos Nafta's largest minority shareholder with a stake of about 10 percent.
Klaipėdos Nafta has published Achema's questions regarding a contract with two Lithuanian companies on linking the planned LNG terminal to the country's grid and its answers to these questions on the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius website. Klaipėdos Nafta's shareholder meeting is expected to approve the contract on Friday.
Klaipėdos Nafta says that it plans to invest around 453 million litas (EUR 131.3m) in the LNG terminal project, with some 200 million litas to be received through the project-related extra gas transmission tariff component, which Lietuvos Dujos will transfer to it on a quarterly basis, and the remaining 253 million litas to be borrowed from banks. The price regulator approved the investments last November.
Among other things, Klaipėdos Nafta says in its answers that under the contract with the consortium of Kauno Dujotiekio Statyba (Kaunas Pipeline Construction) and Šiaulių Dujotiekio Statyba (Šiauliai Pipeline Construction), the winning bidder is to complete the pipeline link by October 1, 2014. But even if there were a delay of two months, Klaipėdos Nafta would not have to make lease payments to Norway's Hoegh LNG because the final date for delivering a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to the port of Klaipeda is December 3.
Achema has asked Klaipėdos Nafta to explain why the contract is being concluded, why it decided to invest in the contract on pipeline systems rather than in its core business areas, how it will pay the consortium, why the negotiated value of the contract, 167 million litas, exceeds the initially budgeted 140 million litas.
The shareholder also wants to know if other financing options have been considered in case the extra tariff component is not collected or the project's costs exceed the estimate.
Achema has filed a complaint with the European Commission over the country's Law on LNG Terminal, which sets the extra tariff component and a requirement for large gas consumers to buy at least 25 percent of their gas from the planned LNG terminal in Klaipėda.
The fertilizer manufacturer says that the extra tariff component alone will cost it around 80 million litas over two years.
