“I think they will ask to guarantee the supply of gas to the region of Kaliningrad and for that contract to be long-term and to include transit rates. I think they will also demand certain things. Well, for example, speaking about that volume of gas, which will be supplied to Lithuania, and I think that, with the liquefied natural gas terminal put in operation, they will demand to sign a long-term contract. I think we will not agree with such a condition,” Butkevičius said in an LRT broadcast Savaitė (Week) on Sunday in response to a question what Lithuania could offer to Gazprom in exchange for lower prices of gas.
The existing long-term gas supply contract between Lietuvos Dujos (Lithuanian Gas), Lithuania’s gas imports and supply company, and Gazprom will remain in effect until 2015.
Butkevičius, who last week met with Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Gazprom chairman Alexei Miller in St. Petersburg, also said that Russia’s experts planned to come to Lithuania for talks in the near time.
“When we met with Mr. Medvedev, he advanced that idea – for the experts to come to Lithuania next week and talk. But he was clearly concerned about another issue – the transit of gas to Kaliningrad through Lithuania. Somehow it seemed that he got the view that Lithuania might sometimes close that route,” Butkevičius said.
He emphasized that Lithuania would not make any changes to its stance on the European Union’s (EU) third energy package in talks with Gazprom.
Butkevičius also said that he had not heard any official statements that Russia planned to build an offshoot of Nord Stream to Kaliningrad.
“It has not been said officially at any meeting. But I may repeat what the external experts have said – the building of an offshoot of Nord Stream to the region of Kaliningrad would be a financially unjustifiable project, which would be more of a political decision…”
