Gazprom to Hold Natgas auction for Lithuania, Latvia

Russia's biggest natural gas producer Gazprom said on Saturday it would hold its second gas export auction in mid-March, offering more than 560 million cubic metres of the fuel to Lithuania and Latvia.

Natural gas sold at the auction will be delivered to the two countries between April and December 2016, the company said in a statement.

Gazprom said in November it planned to hold an auction for the Baltic states as its long-term contracts with Lithuania and Estonia were to expire in December.

"Gas sold at the auction will be delivered ... to the delivery point at the Kotlovka gas metering station (on the border between Belarus and Lithuania)," the company said.

Gazprom, which mainly supplies natural gas under long-term oil-indexed contracts, held its first auction for customers in northwestern Europe in September and sold 1.2 billion cubic metres (bcm) of the fuel.

The company has said it plans to auction 6.0 bcm of natural gas for European customers in 2016.

(Reporting by Denis Pinchuk and Polina Devitt; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Helen Popper)