Riga - While Ukraine and Russia remain at loggerheads over
gas supplies and many European states feel the chill as a result, the
three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been able
to watch from the sidelines in relative comfort despite sub-zero
temperatures with their own gas supplies unaffected.
Despite being former Soviet states like Ukraine, the Baltics
receive their gas via different routes, enabling them to avoid the
disrupted supplies encountered elsewhere.
Vinsents Makaris, a spokesman for Latvian gas utility Latvijas
Gaze told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the Baltics had 'no
similarities at all' with the situation in the rest of Europe.
'In Latvia we have a unique situation, because we have storage for
all natural gas used from October to April. So, in wintertime we
don't have any external gas supplies and all gas comes from storage,'
he said.
'In summer, when there is small demand across Europe, we take gas
directly from Russia and then gas goes directly from Russia to our
customers while we load our storage for wintertime.'
Latvijas Gaze's vast Incukalns storage facility, located half an
hour's drive from the capital, Riga, also supplies gas to Lithuania,
Estonia and even parts of Russia itself.
Something else helps to ensure Baltic gas supplies - the fact that
Russian gas giant Gazprom owns more than a third of all three Baltic
gas utilities: Latvijas Gaze in Latvia, Eesti Gaas in Estonia and
Lietuvos Dujos in Lithuania.
'It's important that Gazprom is our shareholder,' said Makaris.
'Our daily work and cooperation is at a high level, especially as we
play the role of supplying gas to the whole Baltic region.'
Yet the Baltics may yet feel some knock-on effects of the Russia-
Ukraine gas dispute. The disruption of gas supplies to western Europe
has reminded western European politicians of the attractions of the
multi-billion dollar Nord Stream gas pipeline planned to run beneath
the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.
Estonia and Lithuania are among the controversial project's
fiercest critics, fearing that Nord Stream would enable Russia to
'bypass' them and cut off supplies at will for political purposes.
Estonia has also raised concerns about Nord Stream's environmental
impact.
Estonia has effectively refused permission for Nord Stream to run
through its waters after failing to grant permission for geological
surveys and Lithuania says only an overland route through its own
territory would be acceptable.
Latvia takes a more equivocal approach and there have even been
rumours that a Latvian link to Nord Stream could be constructed near
the town of Dobele.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet reaffirmed his country's
concerns over Nord Stream at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in
Prague on Wednesday in response to comments from former German
chancellor and Nord Stream director Gerhard Schroeder, who claimed
the pipeline had received approval from all EU member states and
would start pumping in October 2011.
'Schroeder is speaking as a member of the Nord Stream management,'
Paet told the Baltic News Service, adding that no final decision
could be made until a full assessment of the projects environmental
impact had been made.
'The EU also should bear in mind that Russia as a gas supplier is
not entirely reliable and look for other alternatives,' Paet said, a
sentiment sure to be echoed in freezing rooms across other former
Eastern Bloc countries.
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