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Liquefaction of natural gas provides great opportunities for its trade transportation, making it cost-effective and accessible to places where installing pipelines is impossible or economically unjustified. Liquefied natural gas also opens opportunities for market diversification, if the region is tied to one supplier, as it is in Latvia, with potential positive effects on both the market price and the region's energy security. In view of the growing LNG trade and transport industry, the article studies the possibility to import natural gas in liquefied form. Neither Latvia or Estonia has large-scale facilities to import natural gas in liquefied form. The only natural gas sources are natural gas imported from Russia through piping. Latvia and Estonia can import and store liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is the drained by-product of natural gas extraction and liquefaction process, ethane and butane. Lithuania has the only LNG import terminal in the Baltic countries. The aim of the study is to understand the feasibility and validity of constructing a LNG terminal in Latvian territory based on the Lithuanian experience. The study will conclude that it is possible to build a competitive LNG import terminal in Latvia on condition that natural gas is not stored in liquid form, and will recommend to include such LNG terminal in the national development plan.

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/cbme.2017.009

LNG, LNG bunkering, natural gas imports, gas commercial and transportation industries