Lithuania to get gas discount from Gazprom

MOSCOW, May 15 (UPI) -- A deputy director at the Russian energy company Gazprom said Thursday the company will reduce the price it charges Lithuania for natural gas by 20 percent.

Dmitry Khandoga, the deputy director for Gazprom's external activity department, confirmed to state news agency RIA Novosti , that the Lithuanian discount would be "around 20 percent."

The new price would go into force on July 1. The discount would put the price at $370 per 1,000 cubic meters, the standard purchase volume.

The government in Lithuania, a former Soviet republic, has been at odds with Gazprom over its gas prices. In November, Joaquin Almunia, the vice president for competition policy in the European Commission, said Lithuania was among the Baltic countries expressing concern about abuses in the region's natural gas sector.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday he was frustrated by an energy market dependent on regional politics.

"We want predictable rules of the game on the energy market that won't change unilaterally and won't depend on political speculations," he said.