Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proposed increasing natural gas deliveries to Lithuania.
"We are ready to consider all [gas] demands on good terms," Putin told Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite on the sidelines of the Baltic Sea Action Summit (BSAS) in Helsinki on Wednesday.
"We have grounds to believe that Lithuania's natural gas demands will at least double following the shutdown of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant," he said.
Grybauskaite said Lithuania was "interested" in cooperation.
The Ignalina NPP's first unit was closed in December 2004 and the plant was completely shut down in late 2009 as part of an agreement on the Baltic state's accession to the EU, which took place in May 2004.
The Ignalina plant is of a similar design to the power plant that exploded in 1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine. The Soviet-era Ignalina power station provided about 70% of Lithuania's electricity.
Lithuania strives to cooperate with its neighbors to secure its energy system by diversifying energy supply sources.
The replacement for Ignalina, due to be built as part of a $3-4 billion joint project with Poland, Estonia and Latvia is unlikely to be ready before 2015. Lithuania had been reluctant to close the plant and increase its reliance on Russia for energy before its replacement could be commissioned.
HELSINKI, February 10 (RIA Novosti)
