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VILNIUS, Nov 13, BNS - Following Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's statements about the possibility for Moscow to abandon the Nord Stream project and build gas liquefaction facilities, the official Vilnius applauded the intentions.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is positive about the intentions voiced by representatives of the Russian administration to liquefy natural gas and supply it to the global market by ships. Such decision would liberalize the Russian possibilities of transporting of natural gas, at the same time enhancing the reliability of gas supplies," director of the ministry's Information and Public Relations Department, Violeta Gaizauskaite, said in a
press release on Thursday.

In her words, Russia does not have liquefied gas technologies, therefore, will need to adopt the experience of other countries and accept their investments to translate the plans into reality. According to the press release, this is likely to promote the accession of investments in Russian gas deposits, which had received sparse attention from the current administration.

On Wednesday, Putin urged European countries to make up their minds on the need of the Northern European gas pipeline Nord Stream, stressing that in the opposite case Russia would shift its attention to liquefied gas. In his words, Moscow is not pushing this decision and Russia does not need it more than European consumers.

Lithuania, Estonia and Poland have been criticizing the Nord Stream pipeline as a potential threat to the ecology of the Baltic Sea. Under the Nord Stream project, Russian gas from the Leningrad region near St. Petersburg would reach a location north of Berlin via a pipeline on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries.