As of 2019, Ignitis performs the designated supply function for Lithuania’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal. The company took on that task after LITGAS, another company of the Lietuvos Energija group, was merged into it.

Keeping the LNG terminal infrastructure minimally operational requires that a certain amount of natural gas –the so-called ‘mandatory quantity’– be supplied through the LNG terminal: regasifying it to fill repositories or reloading and delivering it to the national gas grid or the international LNG market.

The Lithuanian government has confirmed that for the first five years, starting 1 January 2015, the minimum quantity of natural gas for gasification needed to keep the gasification process at the LNG terminal stable is 325 to 502.902 million m3 per year, at a temperature of interest of 0°C and pressure of 1.01325 bar.

Lithuania’s Law on the LNG Terminal and the Description of the Natural Gas Supply Diversification Procedure both stipulate that the designated supplier (appointed by way of tender for 10 years by the Ministry of Energy) must procure the mandatory quantity, entering into a contract with a supplier of LNG.

The designated supplier sells the mandatory quantity of LNG on the competitive market, being compensated only for expenses which it incurred due to the specifics of its activity as the designated supplier and which other natural gas suppliers do not incur.