VILNIUS, January 30. /ITAR-TASS/. The Lietuvos dujos (Gas of Lithuania) company decided Thursday to resort to arbitration because of what it claims is “an unfairly formed price” for natural gas supplied by the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, which it believes to be overstated, said the country’s Ministry of Energy.

The ministry said, “The price for gas supplied to Lithuania by Gazprom considerably exceeds that fixed for Latvia, Estonia and Germany”, which “causes damage to consumers, our economy and Lietuvos dujos that loses customers, while gas consumption declines”. The appeal will be revoked, if talks with Gazprom yield “a price reduction to a reasonable level”.

Another appeal with the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal has been filed by the Lithuanian government, which believes the country overpaid 5 billion lit (€1.5 billion) for Gazprom’s gas.

Meanwhile, Lithuania’s gas network is East-integrated, and the country entirely depends on Gazprom-supplied Russian gas.

Lietuvos dujos is owned by E.ON Ruhrgas (38.9%), Gazprom (37.1%) and the Lithuanian government (17.7%).