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Lithuania's security heads address LNG terminal safety issues

Xinhua, January 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

The delegation of the Lithuanian parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee and the Interior Ministry visited the site of the country's liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and Lithuania's western port of Klaipeda on Wednesday to assess its security situation.

In the eve of the visit, Arturas Paulauskas, the chairman of the parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee, emphasized the necessity to ensure the proper guard of Lithuania's strategic facilities.

"LNG terminal is one of the main strategic objects, and its protection must be extremely careful," said Paulauskas in a statement.

"We cannot deny that this object can become an essential target in the case of aggression," he added.

After the closed door meeting, Paulauskas acknowledged that a real threat to the terminal is minimal.

"However, there are legal and material cracks that need to be filled in order to feel safer," said Paulauskas to Lithuanian media.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Saulius Skvernelis informed there are 30 officers from the Public Security Service currently guarding the terminal but the number might be increased up to 50.

"I believe proper measures have been taken and today everything is being done. We can say that security measures match all requirements," the minister told BNS news agency.

Arvydas Vaitkus, the head of the port of Klaipeda, insisted the terminal is the safest object in the port.

"We constantly cooperate with all the terminals operating in the port and urge them to implement the latest technologies in order to ensure the higher safety level," Vaitkus told journalists.

The LNG terminal and its floating storage and regasification vessel Independence officially started its commercial operations on the first day of 2015 in order to provide energy independence from Russian gas. Endit