Gazprom workers welding the final joint of the Minsk – Vilnius – Kaunas –Kaliningrad gas pipeline in 2009.

Gazprom has filed a request to the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce to consider the conflict with Lithuania’s Energy Ministry. The Russian company wants to receive a compensation of damage from the ministry following an earlier court proceedings Vilnius initiated against Gazprom. 

In March, official Vilnius went to court with the request to investigate the activities of Lietuvos Dujos company, in which Gazprom holds one of the main stakes, and to oblige Gazprom to reduce price for gas it supplies to Lithuania. 

The Lithuanian government complained that Russia had set higher gas tarriffs than the tariffs agreed upon during the privatization of Lietuvos Dujos. 

Now Gazprom has filed a counter claim seeking compensation for damage it suffered due to Vilnius’ claims. According to general director of the Russian Fund of national energy security Konstantin Simonov, Gazprom has good chances of having his counter claim satisfied.
"It is a common practice to go to arbitration when the parties fail to agree. Such an option is always set in contracts. In this situation, Gazprom is acting in a European way and it will definitely be able to stand up for its rights. Judging from the content of the contracts I think that Gazprom has good chances to win."

It is difficult to say exactly what Gazprom means by damage. But it has been calculated that in the first quarter of 2011 Lietuvos dujos gas sales dropped by more than 1/3. All the experts interviewed by “Voice of Russia” said that the higher gas price for Lithuania is quite grounded. According to Bloomberg news agency, earlier this year Gazprom said that Lithuania, unlike neighboring Latvia and Estonia, won’t receive gas-price cuts because the country plans to begin unbundling ownership of its gas industry

Read the ‘Voice of Russia’ article at:
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/08/31/55465155.html