Lithuanian Hub?

摘要

Lithuania may be Europe's newest and smallest LNG importer, but its energy minister has big hopes for its future as a natural gas hub for northeastern Europe and, perhaps more significantly, as an alternative to Gazprom. Rokas Masiulis told the IHS CeraWeek conference in Houston last week that Lithuania is ideally placed to serve as a hub for gas deliveries to multiple countries in Northeastern Europe by pipeline or by truck. They include Ukraine, Poland, Estonia and Latvia. Truck deliveries are more economic under some conditions than pipelines, while LNG re-exports might also be possible, he said. Lithuania became an LNG player with the installation of the Hoegh Independence floating storage and regasification unit last year (WGI Oct.29' 14). The Independence received its first cargo in October from Statoil, but Masiulis would like to see tankers from the US Gulf Coast in the future to increase the diversity of suppliers.