Gasprom Starts Supplying Gas To Kaliningrad Bypassing Belarus

Earlier, the LNG terminal was positioned as a backup option for the region’s gas supply.

Gazprom’s chairman Alexey Miller, when launching the LNG terminal in the Kaliningrad region, unexpectedly announced that gas transit to the western enclave of Russia via Belarus and Lithuania through the Minsk-Vilnius-Kaunas-Kaliningrad gas pipeline was simultaneously terminated, Interfax reports.

“Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, in the diagram you can now see that the gas supply system through the Minsk-Vilnius-Kaunas-Kaliningrad gas pipeline is completely disconnected, and the gas supply to the Kaliningrad region is currently fully implemented through the receiving sea terminal,” the head of the Russian gas company reported to the state leader.

Earlier, the LNG terminal was positioned as a reserve option for the region’s gas supply - in case of hypothetical problems with transit.

“The daily capacity of the terminal now is 13.2 million cubic meters of gas. The annual capacity of the terminal is such that it allows you to fully meet both the current and future gas needs of the Kaliningrad region. Gasprom applied a complex approach to ensuring the unfailing gas provision to the Kaliningrad region. We are developing the Kaliningrad underground storage facility, and at the same time we are building in the Leningrad region in the area of the Portovaya compressor station, where the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline takes its start, the gas liquefaction plant that is being built specifically for the needs of the Kaliningrad region,” Miller reminded.

“Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, the task that you set up - to ensure full guaranteed autonomous gas supply to the Kaliningrad region from the sea - has been accomplished,” said the Chairman of Gazprom.

Vladimir Putin, in turn, said that a unique underground gas storage facility (UGS) was built in Kaliningrad, which, after commissioning, will ensure stable gas supplies to the region during the autumn-winter period.

“Of particular note is the work on the construction of the Kaliningrad underground gas storage facility. This unique UGS facility will ensure reliable and stable gas supplies to consumers in the region, especially in the autumn-winter period,” Putin said during the Tuesday ceremony of commissioning the terminal for receiving gas and floating regasification platform, in the framework of the Gazprom project.

The President noted that the Kaliningrad region is completely autonomous and can solve all tasks in the field of energy and electricity consumption. “The system is ready. The passage of the autumn-winter period speaks of this most vividly,” Putin added.

Putin said that at present two power stations have been commissioned in the region, the third will be ready for commissioning in the first quarter of next year. According to the President of the Russian Federation, another one will be introduced in 2020.

“Thus, 970 megawatts of additional capacity will be created in Kaliningrad. This fully meets the growing needs of the region,” said the President of the Russian Federation.