Latest news with #Vaiciunas
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EU could aggregate demand for US gas as part of trade talks, Lithuania says
By Kate Abnett BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union could consider aggregating its member countries' demand to buy U.S. liquefied natural gas, as part of negotiations with President Donald Trump to try to avert a trade war, Lithuania's energy minister told Reuters on Tuesday. When EU ministers met on Monday to consider the bloc's response to Trump's planned 20% tariffs on most EU goods, EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said LNG could be part of negotiations. Also on Monday, Trump said the EU would need to buy U.S. energy and that could reduce the U.S. trade deficit with the bloc. The U.S. is already Europe's largest LNG supplier, providing 45% of EU LNG imports last year. Zygimantas Vaiciunas said the EU's options to incentivise purchases of U.S. LNG included "demand aggregation", in which the European Commission would collate LNG demand from groups of EU countries or the entire bloc to present a bigger request for supplies. "I think that would be one of the potential future talks, about the demand and the potential managing of the demand in the regions, or in the entire EU," Vaiciunas said. The EU does not directly purchase gas, which is done by companies and traders in commercial contracts. But Brussels has run a joint gas buying scheme, aimed at increasing the bargaining power of member states, since 2023. While individual companies sign the final contracts, the EU scheme gathers European companies' demand and matches it with offers from global gas sellers. U.S. LNG has become more crucial to the EU since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, which forced Europe to reduce its dependence on Russian pipeline gas. Ukraine is also looking to import large volumes of U.S. gas this year via terminals in countries including, Germany, Poland and Lithuania, a senior Ukrainian energy official told Reuters last month. Vaiciunas said the EU could also consider amending its methane emissions rules that some U.S. companies say they will struggle to comply with. "There are some new regulations which have some additional thresholds for U.S. LNG to enter the European market. So this is one of the potentials that could be changed," Vaiciunas said, referring to the EU methane law. He said the European Commission has not started talks with EU governments on the details of how LNG could factor into trade negotiations with the U.S. Starting this year, the EU obliges importers of oil and gas to report the methane emissions associated with those imports. Some U.S. LNG exporters have said the fragmented nature of the country's gas industry means they cannot track emissions along their value chains, down to the fields that gas is extracted from. Sign in to access your portfolio
Reuters
08-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
EU could aggregate demand for US gas as part of trade talks, Lithuania says
BRUSSELS, April 8 (Reuters) - The European Union could consider aggregating its member countries' demand to buy U.S. liquefied natural gas, as part of negotiations with President Donald Trump to try to avert a trade war, Lithuania's energy minister told Reuters on Tuesday. When EU ministers met on Monday to consider the bloc's response to Trump's planned 20% tariffs on most EU goods, EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said LNG could be part of negotiations. Also on Monday, Trump said the EU would need to buy U.S. energy and that could reduce the U.S. trade deficit with the bloc. The U.S. is already Europe's largest LNG supplier, providing 45% of EU LNG imports last year. Zygimantas Vaiciunas said the EU's options to incentivise purchases of U.S. LNG included "demand aggregation", in which the European Commission would collate LNG demand from groups of EU countries or the entire bloc to present a bigger request for supplies. "I think that would be one of the potential future talks, about the demand and the potential managing of the demand in the regions, or in the entire EU," Vaiciunas said. The EU does not directly purchase gas, which is done by companies and traders in commercial contracts. But Brussels has run a joint gas buying scheme, aimed at increasing the bargaining power of member states, since 2023. While individual companies sign the final contracts, the EU scheme gathers European companies' demand and matches it with offers from global gas sellers. U.S. LNG has become more crucial to the EU since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, which forced Europe to reduce its dependence on Russian pipeline gas. Ukraine is also looking to import large volumes of U.S. gas this year via terminals in countries including, Germany, Poland and Lithuania, a senior Ukrainian energy official told Reuters last month. Vaiciunas said the EU could also consider amending its methane emissions rules that some U.S. companies say they will struggle to comply with. "There are some new regulations which have some additional thresholds for U.S. LNG to enter the European market. So this is one of the potentials that could be changed," Vaiciunas said, referring to the EU methane law. He said the European Commission has not started talks with EU governments on the details of how LNG could factor into trade negotiations with the U.S. Starting this year, the EU obliges importers of oil and gas to report the methane emissions associated with those imports. Some U.S. LNG exporters have said the fragmented nature of the country's gas industry means they cannot track emissions along their value chains, down to the fields that gas is extracted from.
Express Tribune
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Baltic nations disconnect from Russian power grid
VILNIUS: The three Baltic states on Saturday cut ties with Russia's power grid to join the European Union's network, the culmination of a years-long process that gained urgency with Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- all former Soviet republics that are now in the European Union and NATO -- had wanted to block Russia's ability to geopolitically blackmail them via the electricity system. "We have removed any theoretical possibility of Russia using energy (grid) control as a weapon," Lithuanian Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas told AFP on Saturday. The European Commissioner for Energy, Dan Jorgensen, said: "This is indeed a historic day." "I like the light better when there's no Russian electrons involved," he told reporters in Estonian capital Tallinn. "It's important to underline that this is about security... No European country should be dependent on Russia for anything," he added. Vaiciunas said the Baltic states had completed the disconnection process at 9:09 am (0709 GMT). Latvia later physically cut a power line to Russia. "Now we have complete control over our power grid," Latvian Energy Minister Kaspars Melnis told reporters while holding a piece of the dismantled wire. Vaiciunas said the Baltics were now operating in so-called "isolated mode" before they integrate with the European grid on Sunday. A total of 1.6 billion euros ($1.7 billion) — mostly EU funds — have been invested in the synchronisation project across the Baltic states and Poland. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was to attend a ceremony with Baltic leaders in Vilnius on Sunday.
Sky News
08-02-2025
- Business
- Sky News
Baltic countries cut off Russian energy supply
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have officially disconnected their electricity systems from Russia's as the Baltic countries seek closer ties with the European Union and better national security. The move symbolises their desire to sever all ties with, and gain energy independence from, Moscow. Officials switched off the Soviet-era grid's transmission lines on Saturday, they said, and, after the Baltic Power System operates independently for 24 hours, they will join the European energy networks on Sunday afternoon through several links with Finland, Sweden, and Poland. Lithuania's energy minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas told reporters the Baltic energy system "is finally in our hands, we are in full control". Mr Vaiciunas added: "We've reached the goal we strived for, for so long." The three states were formerly part of the Soviet Union and controlled by the Kremlin, but gained independence in the early 1990s, following the Communist bloc's collapse. The long process of freeing themselves from Moscow began after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are all staunch supporters of Ukraine and stopped buying energy from Russia after President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion in 2022. To that end they have spent around €1.6bn (£1.3bn) upgrading their grids, while Moscow has spent 100 billion roubles (£806,000), boosting its Kaliningrad exclave, located between Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea, which is cut off from Russia's main grid. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna confirmed the aim of freeing themselves from Russian influence, saying ending the energy dependence of the Baltic states on Russia meant they are "leaving the aggressor without the option of using energy as a weapon against us". Reliable power supplies are easier to maintain with a stable grid frequency, which experts say grows more readily over time in a large synchronised area such as Russia or continental Europe, rather than in a smaller region such as the Baltics. Latvian Energy Minister Kaspars Melnis said the system was stable and "the process is happening smoothly, no one is noticing that something changed". Russia, which was formally notified of the impending disconnection last year, has been accused of sabotaging underwater cables in the Baltic Sea region by ships dragging anchors along the seabed. A series of apparent attacks have caused power cable, telecom links, and gas pipeline outages between the Baltics and Sweden or Finland. Russia has denied culpability and on Monday, Swedish officials said a vessel that broke an undersea fibre optic cable between Latvia and Sweden last month did not do it deliberately. On Saturday, Ukraine's air force said it shot down 67 of 139 Russian drones launched overnight, while another 71 disappeared from radar without reaching their targets. It comes the day after Kyiv's forces launched a new series of battalion-sized mechanised assaults in Kursk, six months after a raid into the region shocked the Kremlin. On Friday, they advanced up to 5km (3 miles) behind Russian lines southeast of Sudzha, the Institute for the Study of War thinktank said.
