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"If we manage to reach such agreements, I think we will store more gas in Incukalns next year and will have that flexibility at the end of next year, the peak period of electricity consumption," Masiulis told the parliament.

Russia's gas giant Gazprom, which will continue to own the Incukalns facility until next April, "unfortunately, has not been a reliable partner so far," he added.

"Gazprom (...) has been throwing up every obstacle it can to keep us away from the facility," he said.

In Masiulis' words, Lithuania is in talks with Latvia over the use of the storage facility.

"We have been in intensive talks with the Latvian government and the Latvians are very much interested in utilizing the capacity of the facility as Gazprom is reducing volumes. They regard Lithuania as a natural potential partner," he said.

Latvijas Gaze's shareholders last September gave the go-ahead for spinning off its gas transmission and storage assets into a new company named Conexus Baltic Grid, which will start operations in early January.