OREANDA-NEWS  The Finnish government plans to ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2025.

"The government is preparing to ban the import of Russian liquefied natural gas to Finland, the goal is for the ban to come into force in 2025," Kai Myukkianen, Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, told Helsingin Sanomat newspaper on Friday.

He noted that the ban could be introduced with the help of the EU gas market reform agreed in early December, but admitted that it was difficult to agree on new sanctions in the energy sector.

"Everything would be simple if the EU made a joint decision on this issue, but some member states are not ready for it. It is a fact that such a decision cannot be made in the EU," Myukkianen believes.

According to the publication, the state-owned Gasum company continued to import LNG from Russia throughout the entire period of the Russian military operations in Ukraine. The company explained its operations by contractual obligations, the existence of a long-term gas supply agreement with the Russian state gas company Gazprom (MOEX: GAZP).

Gasum says that since the beginning of hostilities, they have purchased from Gazprom only the minimum amount of gas required by the agreement. The company did not disclose either the term of the agreement or the number of minimum purchases.

Last year, Finland imported natural gas from Russia for several million euros per month, the newspaper notes.

Before the cessation of pipeline gas supplies in May 2022, the cost of imports was more than 100 million euros per month.