"Given that there is neither the need for such a storage facility nor the financial resources, a rational decision was made to suspend the project and stop all active steps regarding this project," Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas told reporters after the Cabinet's meeting on Wednesday.
"This doesn't mean that we won't be able to develop this project in the future," he added.
According to Vaiciunas, the main reason why Lithuania does not need the Syderiai project, at least for now, is that it has access to the Latvian facility.
"Given that Latvia has practically implemented the (EU) third energy package and Lithuanian gas is practically stored in Latvia's Incukalns facility, we see no major problems here," he said.
The minister said that the Syderiai project had already cost around 8 million euros, with a third of the funds provided by the European Union. The money was spent on various studies and land for the planned storage facility.
It was estimated earlier that it would cost around 1701 million euros to build the facility and that another 140 million euros would be needed for a 500-million-cubic-meter gas "cushion".
