Private sector after state guarantees for bringing FSRU to Estonia
Ain Hanschmidt, the chair of the board of Infortar, said that Estonian companies were excluded from the most recent auction in Klaipeda. He said that the private sector cannot bring an LNG ship to Estonia on its own and that state cooperation is required.
"With contracts in place to acquire additional gas as necessary, we have supply security for this year. Nevertheless, we do not have a supply guarantee for next year, as we no longer receive gas from Russia and have not yet found alternative supply chains," Hanschmidt said.
Klaipeda terminal supplies the Baltics and Poland with LNG. In the long-term auction held last week, Lithuanian companies won more than half of the capacity and Polish companies were successful as well.
"I believe one Latvian company was also involved, but Estonia has been left out. So much for solidarity. Each country must be responsible for its own supply security," Hanschmidt said.
When completed at the end of the year, Paldiski terminal could ensure Estonia's supply security: "Then we are able to import gas from the United States, Qatar or Norway. Having multiple energy sources would be a great opportunity for our economy as well as a competitive advantage."
The combined consumption of Estonia and Latvia matches that of Finland alone, so the Inkoo LNG terminal would mainly service the Finnish market, he added.
Hanschmidt said that the private sector is hoping to collaborate with the sate: "We are in a state of emergency. In fact, the public and private sectors should work together. The concern is that if we bring in one terawatt or about 100 million cubic meters of gas in liquid form, and if the TSO or someone else does not pipe the gas, it will all become a waste," he said.
"There needs to be a high level of cooperation. We are now collaborating with the government to get this ship here, but if one of the state-owned enterprises does not allow us to get the gas into the transmission network and supply it to our clients, then we will be in extremely dire straits."
By November 30, the port infrastructure of Paldiski will be connected to the main grid and "from January or February, it will be able to import gas," Hanschmidt said.
It is too early to say where the gas will be brought in from, he added.
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Editor: Kristina Kersa
