Latvian BMGS Gets Deal to Build Jetty for Lithuania LNG Terminal

Klaipedos Nafta AB (KNF1L), Lithuania’s state-controlled energy terminal operator, hired Latvian construction company AS BMGS to engineer and build port infrastructure for a new natural-gas terminal on the Baltic Sea.

BMGS agreed to complete the work by Oct. 1, 2014 for a maximum price of 27.2 million euros ($35.2 million) plus value- added tax, Klaipedos Nafta said in a statement on the Nasdaq OMX Vilnius exchange. The contract was signed yesterday.

Involvement of a company from Latvia boosts chances that the Baltic neighbor, which has vied with Lithuania and Estonia to host a regional gas terminal, will collaborate in the Lithuanian project, Rokas Masiulis, chief executive officer of the Klaipeda-based terminal operator, said earlier this month.

Lithuania is building the floating liquefied natural-gas terminal to diversify its gas imports and reduce reliance on Russia’s OAO Gazprom. The outcome of a separate tender to build a 20-kilometer (21.8-mile) pipeline linking the terminal to Lithuania’s gas grid is under review by a court in Klaipeda.

Klaipedos Nafta last year agreed with Oslo-based Hoegh LNG to lease a terminal that Hoegh is now building for delivery in late 2014.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bryan Bradley in Vilnius at bbradley13@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net