Lithuania suspects Belenergo of unfair competition
1- 6.01.2010, 8:55
Belarus aims to increase costs for transit of Russian electricity, energy experts believe.
A possible stop of Russian electricity deliveries via Belarus would cause considerable dwindling of supply on energy exchange the of Lithuania, which would inevitably cause price increase, INTER RAO Lietuva, the independent electricity supplier in Lithuania said, RIA Novosti informs.
On Monday Belarus stated that deliveries of Russian electricity to Kaliningrad region of Russia and the Baltic States could be stopped because terms of transit hadn’t been agreed upon. At the same time, Russian company “Inter RAO” noted that it had sent Belarusian partners offers on terms of electricity transit, but received no answer to this point. The next round of negotiations is to take place on January 11-12.
“Undoubtedly, such behaviour of Belenergo is to increase prices for electric energy in Lithuania, as it would limit supply on the exchange not only from Russia, which is the main source of import now, but from Estonia, Latvia or Finland as well,” the Lithuanian company quotes its Director of commerce Vidas Čebatariūnas.
At the same time, INTER RAO Lietuva assures its clients that the signed contracts on electricity supplies in 2010 will be implemented, and their terms won’t be changed.
As said by Čebatariūnas, energy suppliers cannot influence the regime of deliveries or the route or the volume of transit to a certain country.
“In a moment electricity can arrive to Lithuania from Belarus, and in the second one via Estonia and Latvia. If lines between Russia and Belarus are cut off technically (there are 11 of them), Belarus would suffer from that itself, as it would be deprived of a possibility to regulate energy flows, accumulate energy, and would limit its possibilities to import electricity from Ukraine, the Director of Commerce said.
He believes that “By its threats Belarus aims to increase price for transit of Russian energy via Belarus several times, at the same time causing increased danger for reliability of the entire electric system”.
Mr Čebatariūnas does not exclude that these actions of Belenergo are a part of unfair competition, as the energy offered by Belenergo at the moment is by half more expensive than the electricity from Russia, Estonia and Ukraine.
