Energy scandals

However, the energy expert prof. Vidmantas Jankauskas says that the decisions that the opposition directly calls scandals are not the worst.

The worst thing about energy is that we are in complete disagreement with our closest neighbors, the Estonians and Latvians, who are already putting a huge demand on us for electricity from the Eastern blockade. The “brothers” suffer huge losses because they are forced to buy more expensive electricity elsewhere.

Terrible contract

The new scandal was raised in public by MP Artūras Skardžius, who during Government Hour at the Seimas asked Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė directly about the agreement with Equinor.

It is no secret that Lithuania pays significantly not only for the LNG terminal, but also for the liquefied gas itself. Due to the agreement signed by Lithuania with the Norwegian company Equinor, our gas consumers overpay an average of 30 million euros per year, because the agreement is absurd: we buy gas a third more expensive than the market price and we still have to buy much more than we need.

The Energy Ministry presented a draft resolution in the last legislature to buy half of this fuel, but according to Ignitis, a state company that oversees gas supply, we will still have to pay the amount of gas stipulated in the contract.

Ignitis Group has now stated that it has agreed with Equinor to change the contract, that is, to provide the necessary amount of gas, which brings us 30 million. damage in euros. Over a period of 10 years – 300 million. euros.

This is the agreement that Lithuania has not needed for a long time, the previous government stated that it is not necessary to guarantee trade flows. Even more so when Amber Grid’s connection to Poland goes live this year, it will definitely guarantee security at that X hour.

Why are they injecting Lithuanian money into the pockets of the Norwegian company Equinor? Don’t they feel sorry for the pockets of our consumers? 30 million euros is not 300 euros.

Why don’t you take steps to terminate the contract, cut the umbilical cord? “- G.Skaistės asked A.Skardžius.

We are fooling Brussels

However, it was not G.Skaistė who received a quick response from Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė.

“This is a question for the Minister of Energy, not for the Minister of Finance. This issue of the mandatory amounts has already been debated in the Government. It is very good that the connection with Poland comes into force, it is very good that it is operational When it goes live, there will be a clear basis to review and reduce those volumes, “he said.

A. Skardžius told her that it is the Ministry of Finance that oversees this area, she manages the Ignitis group, she is even a special deputy minister of energy. However, according to I. Šimonytė, the fact that energy.

Skardžius sees another scandal and says the government should appeal to the European Commission.

“Šimonytė got lost among three pines. 2013 We have informed the European Commission that we have separated electricity and gas transmission from distribution as necessary. The transfer was left to the Ministry of Energy (Litgrid), ESO with all the production passed to the Ministry of Finance.

Is it now that Šimonytė says that Dainius Kreivys controls all energy? This is a serious breach of EU law. Lithuania would face fines for this, because we de jure adhere to the implementation of the Energy II package, and now it has publicly declared to the entire Seimas that the Ministry of Energy controls everything: distribution, transmission, production and import.

The European Commission must be informed about this, “A. Skardžius told” Vakaro žinios “.

New scandals

The politician says the contract with Equinor should be terminated.

“The government has not lowered either the quantities or the price, but by 5 million. euro reduced the amount. Since the contract is not made public, I assume they have adjusted a part of the formula: they had added several add-ons, so the money paid was probably divided into “otkatus”.

We had to cover around $ 30 million a year. loss due to the contract. Now the government is happy to save 5 million. “This amount has reduced the number of ‘otkatus’. But there will still be EUR 25 million in damages. I don’t see what to enjoy here. Money laundering, not otherwise”, Skardžius is convinced.

It also uncovered another scam this week that is driving up electricity prices for consumers.

“It turned out that in 2016-2021. 400 million The value of the regulated assets of the ESO company of the Ignitis Group increased by 160 million euros. As a result, an additional 160 million euros were collected from consumers. The value of the assets was increased by an advance due to promised investments, which were not collected

Furthermore, the General Court of the EU has ruled that the security component, which was applied in 2016-2019, is illegal. During that period, another 180 million were illegally collected from consumers. “, said the parliamentarian.

He also asked I. Šimonytė about this, but the Prime Minister only promised to verify the information and answer it in writing.

Lasts for years

A. Skardžius also recalled other major energy scams of recent times. It is worth the fact that the LNG vessel Independence, which cost $ 250 million, was chosen to be leased for € 720 million over 10 years.

Furthermore, it has been agreed that “standalone” gas will be at least one third more expensive than the EU average.

Another scandal is the construction of a wind farm in the Baltic Sea. According to preliminary estimates, this would cost around € 1 billion.

One of the options considered would be to build it by raising the electricity rate, that is, from the pockets of consumers. Experts have warned that such an investment will never pay off.

“The business would build on its own and still pay the state for the right to produce electricity, as is the case in normal states,” noted A. Skardžius.

According to him, the government has already bought 4 batteries (50 MW each) for a total of 100 million. EUR amount. They are said to be necessary in order to be “released” in the event of an accident or attack by Russia, and for the supply of electricity to continue uninterrupted.

The same would be ensured by the Kruonis Hydroelectric Accumulation Plant, but it would take several minutes to “start up”.

Lithuania until 2024 will lease the LNG terminal ship Independence, and at the end of this period we will have our own ship by decision of the Seimas.

But not necessarily the same. Klaipedos Nafta, the operator of oil and liquefied natural gas terminals, has announced a tender and is awaiting bids to buy another.

“Thank God, no one responded to the invitation to participate in the contest. The amount specified in the Independence charter contract is the amount for which we will be able to acquire Independence for approximately 10 years after leasing it for 10 years and pay as much as the two ships would cost, without any bidding.

So when we bought it, we would pay in total like for a two and a half boat.

And if we buy a new boat of the same size, no one will sell it for half the price, so we will have already paid for three boats in total, “warned A. Skardžius.

Politicians do not believe that energy is controlled by fools.

“I think there are very smart people sitting there, just very greedy, with greedy eyes that don’t see that the Lithuanian population is experiencing energy poverty due to such actions.

When conservatives come to themselves with curved nails, this is where energy scandals arise, because the Nation is not important to them. As the Patriarch used to say, this is not the Nation, but the shooting, “summarized A. Skardžius.

Comments from energy expert Prof. Vidmantas JANKAUSKAS:

Yes, there are a number of problems in our energy sector and they are not being solved in the best way. However, I would not entirely agree with some of the critics’ comments. For example, the contract with Equinor cannot be terminated, there have been many attempts to change it, to renegotiate it, but no one has succeeded.

The contract is now extended. On the other hand, it might not be so bad. Let’s see what the high gasoline prices are in the market now.

And if we have a long-term contract with fixed prices, albeit high, it might be easy

au, as prices may go up even higher. However, even an increase in fixed prices would not increase. You can’t tell what will happen. And if we talk about buying batteries, then they are really necessary.

Be that as it may, from 2025 on, we will have to disconnect from the East and work in another, continental system. And we still don’t know how we will manage to join that system, because now the tests are failing.

If we talk about important political and strategic issues, our biggest problem is that we do not find a common language with Latvians and Estonians.

Let’s talk about it. We had not been able to reach an agreement on the gas before, we built the LNG terminal ship alone and now our consumers are alone in maintaining it.

We have not been able to join the single gas market, although Latvians and Estonians have been able to do so. Not only that, we are now in conflict with Latvians and Estonians over electricity. To the point that Latvians (and maybe even Estonians) can even sue us. Lithuania explains that it is blocking Belarusian electricity because such a law has been adopted, although it has been adopted.

And the law, unpleasant as it may be, must be obeyed. The law states that not only will we not buy electricity from Astrava, but we will not let it in.

Latvia wants to complain to Lithuania about the fact that it has restricted electricity flows. Latvians buy electricity from Russia, and a large part of it flows through Belarus and Lithuania. No one can tell which electron is Russian, which is Belarusian.

In other words, due to a law passed by Lithuania, much less electricity flow now comes to Latvia from the east.

And in Scandinavia, electricity prices are now very high, so Latvians are angry that they are missing the opportunity to buy cheaper energy. The price of Scandinavian electricity is now such that I can’t remember if it was the same: 14-15 cents each. Add distribution, network maintenance.

Residents still pay 14.1 cents per kilowatt-hour, but Ignitis already offers between 21 and 22 cents each.

I hope Latvians were only intimidated when neither they nor Estonians resorted to international arbitration, because it would be very ugly to receive hundreds of millions of complaints from our neighbors.

Maybe we can agree in some way. The European Commissioner for Energy is currently Estonian. That is why we do not have support now in Brussels either.

Associative collage by Arūnas Bernackas