The most vulnerable energy infrastructure in the Baltic Sea needs even more protection following Saturday’s incident involving a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia, Lithuanian Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys says.
“All of the most vulnerable infrastructure is offshore and is difficult to protect. Of course, NATO is already watching ships and movement near critical infrastructure,” Kreivys told LRT RADIO on Wednesday.
“Certainly, that infrastructure is protected at the NATO level and a lot of attention is paid to that. We probably need an even higher level of surveillance, an even higher level of protection and, as the foreign minister mentioned, we probably need joint agreements and a division of labour on who does what,” he added.
On Tuesday, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabriel Landsbergis called for setting up a joint EU and NATO instrument to ensure the protection of energy facilities.
Kreivys says Finland, which has the Inkoo LNG terminal, Estonia, which can receive gas from the Inčukalns gas storage facility in Latvia and the Klaipėda LNG terminal in Lithuania, and also Lithuania have ensured sufficient security of their gas supplies.
On Tuesday, Finland said the damage done to the Balticconnector pipeline last week was probably caused by external factors and it was investigating whether the damage was intentional and who caused it.
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