Russia's Gazprom puts Lithuania assets up for sale

(VILNIUS) - Russian energy giant Gazprom on Thursday put its stake in two Lithuanian energy companies up for sale, just days after regulators in Vilnius fined it for blocking competition in the Baltic state.

"The prime minister has been notified that Gazprom...has decided to sell its shares in Amber Grid and Lietuvos Dujos," spokeswoman for Lithuania's Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius told AFP Thursday.

"We have been notified, but the transaction is not yet complete. The deadline is Monday," she added.

The shares in the state-controlled Lietuvos Dujos gas utility and Amber Grid gas distributor are worth 121 million euros ($163 million).

According to NASDAQ OMX Vilnius, 37.37 percent of shares in the Amber Grid gas distributor and 37.32 percent in the Lietuvos Dujos gas utility were tendered for sale on Thursday morning.

Lithuanian energy firms Lietuvos Energija and Epso-G, both of which have been eyeing the stakes, on Thursday formally launched bids for them.

Vilnius slapped a 35.7 million euro ($48.4 million) fine on Gazprom on Tuesday over its moves to block competition in the ex-Soviet state.

The fine comes as the European Commission is poised to complete an anti-trust probe targeting Gazprom over concerns the Russian energy giant was hindering competition across central and eastern Europe.

Lithuania acquired majority control over its gas and power utilities in May, part of a strategy aimed at ending Russian giant Gazprom's monopoly on not just gas supplies but also distribution in the country.

The country of three million still imports all of its natural gas from Russia.

Taking control of the infrastructure is key to its energy diversification strategy, which is focused on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal due to open on its Baltic Sea coast by the end of this year.

Earlier this month Lithuania's gas utility said it had reached an agreement with Gazprom to slash the price of its natural gas imports.

The gas utility, which has a 40 percent market share in the small Baltic state, did not specify the size of the price cut, saying only that it would be passed on to the market soon.