Around 100 people might join picket against construction LNG terminal in Skulte

RIGA, Feb 3 (LETA) - Around 100 people are likely to turn out for a picket by the Cabinet of Ministers house in Riga this Saturday to protest a plan to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Skulte, LETA was told at the Riga City Hall.

The picket has been announced by a private individual with the aim to call public attention to the need for a more open debate on the LNG terminal project's economic feasibility.

The local authority has authorized the picket as it sees no reasons to restrict the protest.

Youth organization Protests is organizing the picket against the Skulte LNG terminal project in collaboration with nongovernmental groups Green Freedom, Society for the Protection of the Coastal Environment, World Wildlife Fund and the Latvian Fund for Nature.

The NGO urges to halt the implementation of a hurriedly adopted, unreasonable and nontransparent law on the Skulte liquefied natural gas terminal and objects to providing government assistance and investment to the fossil energy project.

The organizations are still waiting for a transparent discussion promised by various government representatives in which the currently incomprehensible government aid to this fossil energy project would be substantiated with concrete figures, representatives of the NGOs said.

ctivists from Protests believe that Latvia can secure gas supplies by cooperating with neighbor countries, with Lithuania and Finland ensuring the gas deliveries and regasification, and Latvia providing gas storage services at its underground gas storage facility in Incukalns. The NGOs believe that the region's gas market is already saturated.

The organizations argue that the "government investments in new fossil energy infrastructure is a step back which will have consequences for climate, young people's future and the competitiveness of the national economy.

s reported, at the end of September 2022, the Saeima passed in the final reading a bill proposed by the government and the Economics Ministry that will grant the status of national interest to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal Latvia is planning to building in Skulte, its pipelines with the natural gas system and related buildings.

Skulte LNG Terminal was registered in 2016, and has a share capital of 42,000. According to information on the company's website, Skulte LNG Terminal belongs to Arnfinn Unum and Peteris Ragauss. In May 2022, Latvian fuel retailer Virsi-A announced an acquisition of a 20 percent in Skulte LNG Terminal.