The Cabinet considers the revised bill on Friday. The bill stipulates that the state will own at least two-thirds of shares in the terminal. The previous version said that the state shall own at least a 50 percent stake.
President’s adviser Gediminas Vaitkevičius told the Cabinet last week that, in President’s opinion, Lithuania should have bigger control over the terminal.
The bill should set forth all the terms and conditions required for the terminal to launch operations by December 2014.
The bill says that at least 25 percent of gas volume required for Lithuania shall be acquired from the terminal. This binding requirement would only apply to the companies holding the gas supplier’s license, including Lietuvos Dujos (Lithuanian Gas), Dujotekana, Achema, Intergas, Kauno Termofikacijos Elektrinė, Lietuvos Energija (Lithuanian Energy).
Those companies should have to sign respective contracts with the LNG terminal operator.
The Energy Ministry does not rule out that, with the LNG terminal built, Russia‘s gas concern Gazprom, now the sole supplier of natural gas to Lithuania, may sell gas cheaper compared with the imports of gas by sea. Moreover, the ministry does not rule out a possibility that the price of gas supplied through the terminal might be set forth by the government in the future.
Previously, the Energy Ministry proposed that the state should own more than 50 percent of shares in the terminal operator. It also put forward a possibility to sell up to 20 percent of shares to suppliers of LNG equipment, technology or gas.
Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas said last week that the shares could be offered to market players active in LNG business, such as Norway’s Hoegh, which will lease the vessel, or US Cheniere, with which Lithuania had signed a letter of intent.
Jean Abiteboul, president of Cheniere's international supply and marketing unit, told BNS last May that the US energy company would consider investing in the LNG terminal and becoming a minority shareholder.
State-owned petroleum products terminal operator Klaipėdos Nafta (Klaipėda Oil), a company charged with the implementation of the LNG terminal project, intends to announce a tender on the supply of gas to the LNG terminal later this year. The supply contract is expected to be signed in the second half of the year.
The LNG terminal is expected to launch operations at the end of 2014. Under current plans, the terminal of 2-3 billion cubic meters annual capacity should pump about 1 billion cubic meters of gas in its first year of operation.
Lithuania consumes some 3 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Transport Ministry disagrees
Meanwhile, Lithuania’s Transport Minister Eligijus Masiulis regrets the decision by the Energy Ministry. In his opinion, participation by private capital would ensure more successful operations of the terminal.
“We want to state that many observations have actually been taken into account. Those uncertain provisions have been eliminated, the law is much clearer now. We somewhat regret a decision to waive the initial version, which provided for a possibility for private capital to participate,” Masiulis, a Liberal party member, told reporters after the government’s meeting on Friday.
In his opinion, those vying for a stake in the terminal operator could include liquefied gas suppliers, which might get up to 20 percent of shares.
“We think that participation by one of major players, which would supply liquefied gas, in the company’s management would ensure more successful functioning of the company and we could share future investment costs with private capital while maintaining strategic influence of the state in running the facility. I think that projects, which include private capital or capital of other states that matches the lines of Euroatlantic integration, are more viable and long-term,” Masiulis said.
