Commission approves €448 million aid for Lithuanian LNG terminal
The European Commission has approved €448 million financial support for the construction and operation of a Liquefied Natural Gas terminal, to be developed in the port of Klaipėda in Lithuania under EU state aid rules, ESPO said in its press release.
The project aims at increasing the security of gas supply within Lithuania by diversifying its supply sources. The Commission has concluded that the aid furthers EU energy goals without unduly distorting competition as the development of the LNG terminal will integrate Lithuania into the EU gas market and will stimulate competition on the Lithuanian gas markets.
In 2013, Lithuania notified plans to support the construction of the Klaipeda LNG terminal with state guarantees backing up the loans needed to finance the up-front investment costs of the terminal. In addition, the operator will receive the so-called “LNG Supplement”, a fee imposed on all users of the transmission system that will be collected by the Lithuanian transmission system operator and paid out to the operator of the terminal after authorisation of the Lithuanian energy regulator, in order to cover part of the investments costs and its maintenance costs during the lifetime of operation of the terminal.
The operator will be obliged to provide regasification services to any third party on regulated tariffs and under non-discriminatory conditions.
In present value terms, the various public support elements for the construction of the LNG Terminal amount to about €448 million. As to the compensation for maintenance costs, it will amount to a yearly average of €17 million.