Gas Monopoly Complains About Divestment of Pipelines
Eesti Gaas, required by the Cabinet to sell off its infrastructure, says the decision will not result in lower prices.
The chairman of the Eesti Gaas board, Tiit Kullerkupp, said in a letter to the government that the price of gas is currently among the cheapest in Europe, Eesti Ekspress reported.
Eesti Gaas accused the state of plannning to waste at least 120 million euros on buying the network instead of building a gas terminal that would reduce dependence on Gazprom, the Russian gas giant.
In Lithuania, gas sales are already separate from the network. Raul Kotov, a member of the Eesti Gaas management board, said prices there rose 20 percent.
Economic Affairs Minister Juhan Parts has maintained that the sale will not have a major impact on price, but may increase price competition in the long run.
Parts said that although an EU directive allows the new owner of the pipes to ask for a greater return after two years, network fees would have only a minimal effect on the end price of gas. "That could be called less than marginal," he said.
The developments on the gas market are parallel to those on the electricity market, where Eesti Energia sold the national grid to an independent operator, Elering.
Kristopher Rikken