Transportation facilities The Helsingin Sanomat newspaper reported that Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies to Finland’s Pori and Tornio terminals could end in 2025.
Minister of Climate and Environment Kai Mikkanen (NCP) told a daily newspaper earlier this year that the government was preparing to ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas as early as 2025.
“I don’t want to commit to a specific date, but I hope that we will be in a situation where the ban takes effect next year,” he said on January 5.
Finland’s state-run natural gas company Gasum continued to import liquefied natural gas from Russia during Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. It justified the purchase with contractual obligations arising from a long-term supply agreement with Russia’s state-run natural gas company Gazprom.
This contract is a so-called take-or-pay contract, meaning that the company is obligated to pay for a certain amount of natural gas each year, regardless of whether the gas is recovered or not. The length and terms of the contract have not been disclosed.
“If we decide not to recover this volume, we will still be obligated to pay the gas bill and will have to re-procure the same volume of LNG from another supplier to fulfill the agreed deliveries to our customers. ” reads a bulletin on Gasum’s website.
The company added that it has collected minimal natural products from Gazprom since February 2022, when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Both Gasum and the Finnish government have said there is no legal basis to halt purchases of natural gas and liquefied natural gas from Russia, as they are not within the scope of EU sanctions.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT