Lithuania looks to guarantee energy security with acquisition of Hoeg LNG terminal

In a determined attempt to lessen its country’s reliance on Russian gas imports, the Lithuanian parliament this week voted in favour of the acquisition of  a floating liquefied natural gas terminal from the Norwegian energy supplier Hoegh LNG. The  300m-long terminal, which has been docked off the Lithuanian coast since 2014 and has been supplying country with some of its gas ever since, is expected to cost the authorities in Vilnius just under $350m.
With Russia’s Gazprom accounting for around 54% of its energy supplies, Lithuania, along with many of its Baltic and Eastern and Central European neighbours, has become increasingly concerned about  the growing tensions between Moscow and the West and the implications for their energy security.
The situation has been exacerbated by the growing row over Nord Stream 2,the new gas pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany that bypasses Ukraine, thereby increasing Moscow’s stranglehold on the region’s gas supplies.
Driven by commercial logic, several several companies – ENGIE, OMV, Shell, Uniper and Wintershall – are helping finance the project, much to the irritation of an ideologically-driven Washington, and the US ambassador recently reportedly warned the companies in question about the “reputational costs and sanctions risks” of their involvement.