Latvia's refusal of Russian gas will hit the Baltics and Finland

Alexey Belogoryev, Deputy Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Ekonomika Segodnya publication on the prospects for gas supply to the Baltic countries in terms of the refusal to import Russian pipeline gas.

Latvia's refusal from Russian gas deprives Finns and Balts of alternatives to LNG, Aleksey Belogoriev noted. This step will lead to negative consequences for the regional economy.

The Baltic States and Finland are isolated from the EU

“The Baltics and Finland is an isolated region in terms of gas transport links. There are no major backbone networks between the Baltic States and Poland, as well as between Finland and Sweden. All this narrows the possibilities of gas supplies to these states,” Alexey Belogoryev concludes.

“The region is an energy island within the EU, and this is the problem of its gas supply. The only alternative to Russian pipeline gas is LNG, and this is only Klaipeda and the construction sites of the Finns and Estonians. The task is simplified by the fact that the market is relatively small in terms of consumption volumes, there is also a large gas storage,” the expert states.

“Problems will arise if Asia shows a large demand for LNG, which is quite likely. The strategic limitation will be that the Balts and Finns will not have an alternative to LNG without Russian gas,” Belogoryev sums up.