Uniper Divests Gas Grid Stake to Latvia

Latvian economy minister Arvils Aseradens said December 19 that state power grid Augstsprieguma Tikls  (AST) had acquired Uniper’s 18.31% stake in Conexus Baltic Grid, the Latvian gas grid operator.

The deal was signed on December 15. Germany’s Uniper has confirmed the deal but said both sides agreed to keep the price confidential. Such an acquisition was expected; however Latvian energy expert Juris Ozolins tells NGW that the government faces an EU deadline, set in 2015, of the end of this month to buy Conexus shares from Russia's Gazprom (34.1%) and Itera (16.05%). EU-backed Marguerite Gas Fund though may retain its 29.06% shareholding, and 2.49% is held by minor shareholders.

“As far as I know, the government is in talks with Gazprom and Itera Latvija,” adds Ozolins; he expects any acquisitions to be financed with a loan from Latvia's treasury.

Shareholders that do not sell their Conexus shares by January 1 2018 will lose their voting rights in the company, according to a charter signed by Conexus shareholders.

Conexus Baltic Grid, which was established December 22 2016, also owns and operates Latvia’s strategic Incukalns underground natural gas storage facility which, with a working storage capacity of 2.32bn  m³, is the largest in the Baltic Republics but is under-used. State control of this asset is part of Latvia’s aim of establishing a regional Baltic–Finnish natural gas market by 2020; it also hopes that aim will be reinforced by completion of the 150km largely subsea Estonia –Finland Balticconnector gas pipe project in 2020 and by a similar overland Lithuania-Poland gas interconnector GIPL around the same time.

In Lithuania, meanwhile, oil and LNG terminal operator Klaipedos Nafta (KN) said December 19 it had won an international arbitration ruling in Stockholm against Latvian contractor BMGS, which rejected the latter’s claim for over €2.3mn of extra work done building an LNG jetty. According to KN, the contractor had agreed to do work for an all-in fixed price of €27.19mn.