In addition to that, Algirdas Butkevičius hopes that Alexey Miller, Gazprom CEO who is expected to come to Vilnius next week, will give answers to the proposals made by Lithuania.
“If he [Miller] confirms that he wants to meet and we agree to that, there may be only one topic of discussion – the proposals made by Lithuania, whether they are acceptable to them or not. If not, then what it is and why… The expert group, which was established and is led by the Energy Ministry, completed its work on July 1, and the other party set up a group as well. It was agreed upon, and Lithuania sent all of its proposals to the other party. I have not even seen those proposals. Yet I was told that they had drawn them up and were now waiting for Gazprom to decide,” Butkevičius said in an interview to BNS on Friday.
Gazprom had to make the decision by mid-August, he said adding that, according to the information available to him, that decision had not yet been made.
Butkevičius claimed that Lithuania would not make any concessions to Gazprom as far as the EU’s Third Energy Package, long-term gas supply contract or a claim lodged with Stockholm arbitration were concerned.
“Speaking about the long-term gas supply contract, according to the information from the task group available to me, this issue has not been put forward. I believe that there is no point for us to sign such a contract as we are working hard and trying to put the LNG terminal in operation in 2014… As far as arbitration is concerned, we discuss it with Lawin [a law firm], which represents the government. As far as I know, such proposals have not been made,” he told BNS.
“I hope that it [the price of gas] will decline by 20 percent so that we could come closer to Latvia and Estonia, although I think that [Gazprom] had not made any discounts to them, either,” Butkevičius said.
He said that he had not yet been notified precisely whether Miller would actually come to Lithuania on Sept. 6. However, he noted that the head of Gazprom would come to take part in a meeting of Lietuvos Dujos’ (Lithuanian Gas) board, which was scheduled on that day.
