Gazprom, EU to Continue Settlement Talks

 

The Russian state-controlled company is fighting accusations of over-charging customers and blocking rivals in eastern Europe, practices which the European Commission say breach the bloc's rules ensuring a level playing field.

 

The company, however, is also seeking to settle the charges with concessions to stave off a penalty and a finding of wrongdoing. The case comes amid continuing tension between the EU and Russia over Ukraine, Syria and the proposed Nord Stream gas link to Germany.

 

The pledge to continue discussions came after a meeting between Gazprom deputy chief executive Alexander Medvedev and Russia's deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky with European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in Brussels.

 

It was Yanovsky's first meeting with Vestager and Medvedev's second.

 

"Consultations with the Commission will continue in order to settle the case on mutually acceptable terms," Medvedev said in a statement after the meeting.

 

Gazprom, which supplies about a third of the 28-country bloc's gas, has modified the pricing element in its proposal to the EU competition enforcer, a person familiar with the matter said, declining to provide details.

 

The regulator sees the company's price formula, whereby the price of its gas is pegged to a number of oil products in a practice known as oil indexation as the thorniest issue because it has resulted in what it says are excessive prices in Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Estonia and Latvia.

 

"(There was) an open and constructive discussion on the Commission's ongoing investigation into Gazprom's practices in Central and Eastern European gas markets," Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said.

 

Gazprom will put forward its arguments at a closed-door hearing on Dec. 15. Senior Commission officials, national antitrust regulators and complainants are expected to attend.