A file photo dated on 1 April 2008 shows a Qatari liquefied natural gas carrier passing through the Suez Canal near Ismailia, Egypt. Helsingin Sanomat on 5 January reported that the Finnish government is working toward banning the import of liquefied natural gas from Russia in 2025. (AFP / Lehtikuva)
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THE TRANSPORT of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to terminals in Pori and Tornio in Finland could end in 2025, reports Helsingin Sanomat.
Minister of Climate and the Environment Kai Mykkänen (NCP) stated to the daily newspaper earlier this year that the government is preparing to ban the import of Russian liquefied natural gas as soon as 2025.
“I don’t want to promise any specific date, but hopefully we’ll be in a situation next year that the ban is in effect,” he said on 5 January.
Gasum, the state-owned natural gas company of Finland, has continued to import liquefied natural gas from Russia throughout Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. It has justified the purchases with contractual obligations arising from its long-term supply contract with Gazprom, the state-owned natural gas company of Russia.
The contract is a so-called take-or-pay contract, which obligates the company to pay for a certain amount of natural gas every year regardless of whether it collects of the gas or not. Neither the duration nor the terms of the agreement have been disclosed in public.
“Should we decide not to collect this amount, we are still obligated to pay for the gas and have to a bulletin on the website of Gasum.
The company added that it has only collected the minimum amount of natural from Gazprom since February 2022, the month in which Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Both Gasum and the Finnish government view that there are no legal grounds for discontinuing the purchases because natural gas or liquefied natural gas deliveries from Russia do not fall within the purview of EU sanctions.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
