Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia stop imports of Russian gas

Europe, News April 5, 2022 , by IRIA 1 Comment

The Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia announced to put a halt on gas imports from Russia to curb the region’s reliance on Russian energy products.

The Baltic countries have taken this step to damage President Vladimir Putin’s leverage on oil and gas control in Europe.

Uldis Bariss, the CEO of a Latvian natural gas storage operator company Conexus Baltic Grid, stated that “If there were still any doubts about whether there may be any trust in deliveries from Russia, current events clearly show us that there is no more trust. Since April 1st, Russian natural gas is no longer flowing to Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania.” He further announced that the Baltic countries are currently being served through the underground gas reserves in Latvia.

The Russian economy is already shaking under severe sanctions from the western world. The U.S. has banned all imports of oil and gas from Russia while most European states are still reliant on Russian gas to cater to most of their energy needs. Russian gas supplies make up 40% of the European gas consumption.

Lithuania has completely stopped the supply of Russian gas becoming the first European country to do so, while Latvia and Estonia have put a temporary halt on the Russian gas supply.

After putting a halt on the Russian gas supply, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called on his European counterparts to follow the Baltic states as an example and cut the Russian supply of energy products. He took Twitter to announce his decision by stating, “From this month on, no more Russian gas in Lithuania.”

Nauseda further added, “Years ago my country made decisions that today allow us with no pain to break energy ties with the aggressor. If we can do it, the rest of the Europe can do it too.” The Lithuanian President has been urging the European leaders to cut energy supplies from Russia by stating, “The Kremlin regime uses our money to finance the destruction of Ukrainian cities and attacks on peaceful civilians.”

With new Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) sites being discovered in Lithuania in 2014, many Lithuanians had been pushing their government to cut off the gas supply from Russia in order to focus on their own independent energy production. Last year, only 26% of Lithuanian gas supply was met through Russian supply, while 62% came from domestic production at the Klaipeda terminal. The remaining 12% was catered with Latvian gas storage.

The three Baltic states have been planning to shift their electric girds from Russia and Belarus to Western European by 2025 for future stability. This step of cutting off the Russian gas supply is seen as propulsion that the project needed in order hasten the process.

Although the Baltic states have stopped gas supply from Russia, the three countries are still relying on Russian-produced electricity. Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish grid operators released a joint statement that in case Russia stops supplying electricity to the Baltic states as a response to their gas cut, “frequency support from the Nordic system will be provided.”