Gazprom sells stake in Latvian company - Russian company acknowledges the EU Third Energy Package for the first time

Russia's Gazprom has decided to sell its stake in a company from Latvia for the sake of alignment with the provisions of the Third Energy Package of the European Union. Gazprom is going to sell a 34% stake in the Latvian natural gas company Latvijas Gaze, the web portal Russia Beyond the Headlines reported Tuesday (29 March 2016).
This transaction will result in the division of the Latvian company into two parts, one of which will focus on gas sales and distribution, while the other will be storing and transporting natural gas, the web portal cited the Russian business daily Kommersant as announcing.

The EU Third Energy Package forbids energy companies to combine production and sales activities with the ownership of transmission network, which was the reason why the South Stream gas pipeline project was suspended in late 2014.

According to Russian analysts, Gazprom has decided not to fight the Third Energy Package in Latvia due to bad experience in neighboring Lithuania, where this company sold its stake in the local gas company after the arbitration.

Gazprom Moscow

EUROPEAN COMMISSION Bruxelles

Gazprom

Latvijas Gaze

Third Energy Package of the EU

South Stream

ThetaTrading

Dmitrij Ederman

Gazprom export

Finam

Aleksej Kalacev

Premier

Ilja Balakirev

Nord Stream 2

European Commission

Freedom Finance

Georgij Vascenko