Updated: Lithuania, Gazprom Inch Towards Peace Agreement in Stockholm Court
Lithuania and Russia’s Gazprom are "a stride away” from terminating one of the arbitration cases, said Lithuania’s former Energy minister Jaroslav Neverovich.
Though Neverovich was quoted as making reference to "a peace agreement," a lawyer knowledgeable of Lithuania’s position indicated that the parties were getting close to termination of one of the claims in the case which Gazprom had questioned Lithuania’s gas sector.
Back in 2011, the Russian gas giant filed a case against the Baltic country in the Stockholm arbitration asking to bar the Lithuanian courts from making a decision in a case that investigated the operations of Lithuanian Gas in which Gazprom owned 37.1 percent of the shares.
Reportedly, Gazprom sold its stakes in the Lithuanian gas utilities Lithuanian Gas and Amber Grid for $164 million last summer.
The former Minister did not elaborate on a possible deal but hinted “it will bring some really good news to the state of Lithuania.”
The Lithuanian Energy Ministry declined to comment on the subject to Natural Gas Europe.
In another lawsuit, Lithuania sued Gazprom in the same Stockholm arbitration for $1.7 billion with claims of overcharges after initiating a European Union antitrust probe in 2012.
Lithuanian Competition Council established that Lithuania’s gas consumers had suffered substantial losses stemming from Gazprom’s refusal to negotiate a swap deal in 2012, which prevented Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba (LEG), the Lithuanian power producer, from purchasing natural gas from other suppliers.
In early 2012, LEG found a cheaper gas supplier in Western Europe and asked Gazprom to sign a gas swap deal to exchange the gas LEG planned to purchase in Western Europe for the gas that the Russian company delivered to Lithuania via Belarus.
The Russians however refused, instigating LEG to appeal to the Lithuanian Competition Council.
This past summer, the Lithuanian Competition Council (LCC) fined Gazprom $48 million for an anti-trust breach stemming from overcharging customers and blocking rival suppliers.
The Russian gas monopoly is contesting the penalty at Lithuania’s Vilnius Regional Administrative Court (VRAC). Lawyers following the case have told Natural Gas Europe the Russian company stands little chance, but the fine will be likely reduced.
In early May when Gazprom cut the gas price for Lithuanian Gas by 20 percent, some Lithuanian lawmakers expressed concern that in exchange for the discount the Social-Democratic Lithuanian Government may drop the $1.7 billion lawsuit against the Russians, but the Baltic state’s PM Algirdas Butkevičius denies, saying that different arbitration cases should not be confused.
This article replaces an earlier version published on September 12th.