Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of Energy Albinas Zananavičius, at the meeting of the European Union Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council in Brussels, urged the European Commission to take immediate action to stop the import of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) into the EU as soon as possible before 2027.
“While we can assess the EU preparations for this and next winter as good enough, we cannot relax yet,” he said. “It is important to continue to focus on the protection of infrastructure facilities, cross-border interconnections, in particular offshore, as well as on efforts to ensure stable LNG supply from as many reliable sources as possible.”
At the Energy Council, Lithuania presented the issue of the necessary measures to stop the import of Russian LNG into the EU. Although EU imports of Russian gas via pipelines have significantly decreased (from 150 billion cubic metres to 44.5 bcm) over the last 2 years, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, LNG imports have increased by as much as 38 per cent.
“Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Europe has demonstrated a desirable solidarity by reducing its import of Russian gas,” said Mr Zananavičius. “The LNG infrastructure created and further developed in the EU has been one of the main instruments to diversify gas supply and increase the energy independence of the EU; therefore, the growing volumes of Russian LNG imports is a trend that we cannot ignore but that we need to take concrete action upon.”
Lithuania was the first country in the EU to refuse to import Russian gas, including LNG, oil and electricity after Russia invaded Ukraine.