Guerre du gaz, l’exemple lituanien
Opinion: Standing up to Gazprom. What Ukraine can learn from Lithuania | The Lithuania TribuneThe Lithuania Tribune
▻http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/69495/opinion-standing-up-to-gazprom-what-ukraine-can-learn-from-lithuan
Russia and its state gas company, Gazprom, cut their gas supply to Ukraine last week amid a dispute that includes Gazprom’s demand that Ukrainians pay $485 per thousand meters of gas – an 81-percent price increase. Yet weeks earlier, Gazprom agreed to cut Lithuania’s gas price to $370, a reported discount of about 20 percent. As Ukraine and much of Europe grope for ways to reduce their vulnerability to Russia’s politicized gas prices, how did Lithuania achieve this success? Can Ukraine do the same?
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But the main factor was that Lithuania is poised for the first time to buy from an alternate supplier. In December, the Klaipeda liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal will start operations, producing gas at a price lower than what Gazprom has been charging, Lithuanian Energy Minister Jaroslav Neverovic said last month. Klaipeda will be a “floating” terminal – a ship as long as three football fields that will anchor at a jetty in the harbor, unload LNG carriers and turn the liquid back into gas to be pumped ashore. With a projected capacity of 2-3 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year, the terminal will be able to can meet Lithuania’s annual consumption needs, which in 2012 were 2.7 bcm.
The strategic importance of this project cannot be overstated. Most significantly, Lithuania will now be able to buy gas from world markets rather than solely from Gazprom
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Whether via LNG terminals or not, greater diversification of energy sources and routes should be Ukraine’s main priority reducing its vulnerability in its gas relationship with Russia. Already, Ukraine is working on making its pipeline connections to western neighbors reversible. This would let Kyiv import about 10 bcm of gas annually from Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. Energy efficiency in Ukraine has been less discussed but is an equally important priority. For decades Ukrainian households and industry have enjoyed cheap gas and have not pursued economic restructuring or energy conservation that could decreased their reliance on Russian gas. Thus, only Kyiv’s comprehensive reassessment of Ukraine’s energy sector – including securing alternative sources, routes, technologies, and economies – could facilitate a long-term solution to its ongoing gas conflict with Moscow. Meanwhile, let us hope that the current gas war is resolved before the coming winter months.