The meeting with Gazprom’s chairman, scheduled for Friday afternoon, would be the first for the leader of Lithuania's current government. In January, Energy Minister Jaroslav Neverovič met with Gazprom’s vice-president, Alexander Medvedev. Back in 2009, Miller met with then Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius in Vilnius.
“It would be an acquaintance meeting and the topics of discussions will probably include the issue of the European Union’s third energy package – the prime minister intends to confirm that Lithuania continues with its implementation. At the same time, the government is open for negotiations on the price of gas. I think no specific agreements would be reached yet it might be agreed to hold negotiations at the expert level,” she told BNS.
The meeting should take place between 4 PM and 4:30 PM local time on Friday, the spokeswoman said. Both Butkevičius and Miller will attend a plenary session of the Conference of the Heads of Government of the Baltic Sea States on Environmental Protection (The Baltic Sea Summit) hosted by St. Petersburg.
Sources close to Lithuania’s authorities told the Verslo Žinios business daily that Russia’s representatives had recently been sending clear signals that Gazprom was ready to cut the price of gas supplied to Lithuania by approximately 20 percent. However, Russia reportedly needs a pretext so as to be able to preserve its dignity: for example, Lithuania could at least once again postpone the formal deadline for the implementation of the EU’s 3rd energy package, which is now set at the end of October 2014, if it refused to reconsider the model chosen for the implementation of this package.
Butkevičius said in late January that the price of natural gas for Lithuania might go down if Gazprom sought to maintain good economic relations with Lithuania. Otherwise, the price of gas would only decline at the end of 2014, after the completion of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Klaipėda, he then said.
The implementation of the third energy package, which provides for the unbundling of gas transmission, supply, and distribution activities, has sparked disputes between Lithuania and Gazprom. In line with this package, Lietuva plans to unbundle different operations of Lietuvos Dujos (Lithuanian Gas) by the end of 2014. In particular, the gas supply pipelines of the Lithuanian gas imports and supply company, which is 37.1-percent owned by Gazprom, would be transferred to a new company that will be spun off from Lietuvos Dujos.
