Finland will ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) from next year, Environment and Climate Minister Kai Mykkanen said on Friday in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat.
According to the minister, Helsinki intends to develop a regulatory framework this year, which will allow the embargo to be imposed.
“I wouldn’t like to set any specific date, but hopefully next year we will be in a situation where the ban comes into force,” Mykkanen said.
Finland's state-owned energy company Gasum still receives LNG from Russia under the terms of the current contract. However, the amount of gas entering the Nordic nation has decreased over the past two years.
So far, imports of Russian LNG have been prohibited at Finland’s largest terminal, Inkoo, located on the south coast.
“Finland’s LNG imports from Russia have been small. This issue is not significant,” Mykkanen stressed.
Helsinki previously imported Russian pipeline gas worth hundreds of millions of euros every month, in start contrast to the relatively small-scale purchases of super-chilled Russian fuel.
In September, Leonid Mikhelson – head of Novatek, Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer – said that Gasum had resumed LNG purchases in contracted volumes from the Kryogaz-Vysotsk plant controlled by the company, and was receiving 40% of all fuel produced at the facility.
Russia cut off pipeline gas supplies to Finland in May 2022, when Gasum refused demands to pay for gas in rubles.
The EU has not imposed sanctions on Russian LNG. Although pipeline gas imports to Europe decreased sharply in response to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, member states purchased record amounts of Russian LNG in 2023.
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