Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Taavi Aas (Center) and Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä signed the memorandum which should be implemented no later than the end of 2022.

The rented floating terminal will have at least 30 terawatt-hours capacity and countries will share the costs. Elering and Gasgrid are responsible for its installation and the companies will also signal a cooperation agreement.

The terminal will begin operating in whichever country has the infrastructure needed to service the terminal in place first, and thereafter at the Port of Inkoo in Finland.

"It makes sense for good neighbors to launch major energy projects across borders," Aas said. "Estonia operates on the same gas market as Finland and a new source of natural gas is something we both need to secure right now in order to bolster energy security throughout our region and put an end to our use of Russian gas."

Aas said the countries are working to ensure they can manage without importing Russian gas this winter. He called the situation with Europe's gas market "unpredictable" saying things "are changing in a matter of days, not weeks or months".

The terminal will be used for as long as necessary and depends on the energy market.

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