Lithuania decided to stop importing gas from Russia in response to the recent war it launched against Ukraine, at a time when Algeria said that it could not replace Russian gas, and Azerbaijan intends to supply gas to Italy.
The Lithuanian Energy Ministry said on Saturday evening that Lithuania has stopped importing gas from Russia, as the region's governments seek to reduce their dependence on Moscow amid the Russian war on Ukraine.
The Ministry said that the Lithuanian gas network has been operating without gas imports from Russia since the beginning of this April, and this information was confirmed by the operator of the Lithuanian network, which shows the absence of gas imports through the interconnection unit between Lithuania and Belarus yesterday, April 2nd.
"We are the first country in the European Union among the countries receiving supplies from Gazprom to achieve complete independence from Russian gas supplies, which comes as a result of a coordinated multi-year energy policy and timely decisions on infrastructure," Lithuanian Energy Minister Dainius Kreves said in a statement.
All of Lithuania's gas needs will now be met through a liquefied natural gas terminal in the coastal city of Klaipeda, and Lithuania built the floating facility in early 2015 in order to reduce its dependence on Russian gas imports.
Three large shipments of liquefied natural gas are scheduled to arrive each month at the floating facility, and the ministry said the gas would continue to flow across the country to Russia's landlocked city of Kaliningrad, despite halting imports.
Lithuania shares borders with Kaliningrad and Belarus, Russia's ally.
Last March, the Lithuanian parliament called on the government to stop importing and consuming Russian energy as soon as possible against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
Parliamentary data showed that Lithuania buys more than 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of oil, gas and electricity from Russia each year.
In Germany, companies are already preparing for the possibility of a gas shortage amid fears that Russia will cut supplies to the country, which is heavily dependent on imports.
Algeria and Azerbaijan
On the other hand, Algerian radio quoted on Saturday, Taoufik Hakkar, CEO of the state energy company "Sonatrach", as saying that his country has several billion additional cubic meters of gas, but it cannot replace Russian gas.
The minister also indicated that the company made 3 new oil discoveries in the first quarter of this year.
As for Azerbaijan, the Interfax news agency quoted Energy Minister Pervez Shahbazov as saying today, Saturday, that his country intends to supply 9.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Italy in 2022.