Construction, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Gas, Lithuania, Russia

Lithuania's gas transmission company Amber Grid says it has only recently learned about such a deal.

The energy minister says Alvora will not be allowed to enter into a contract with Russian producers. Alvora says the initial plan to work with an Italian company was affected by the coronavirus epidemic.

The LRT says Alvora signed a contract with Global Pipe Trade, a Swiss-registered company that is part of the Russian ChelPipe Group, in April. And Global Pipe Trade was renamed ChelPipe International in May.

Under the contract, components necessary for the GIPL gas pipeline would have been bought from a production facility in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

In 2016, Global Pipe Trade also supplied its products to Alvora for the construction of the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia. Tomas Sidlauskas, Alvora's CEO, says the company is also using equipment made by the Chelyabinsk production facility for other projects as well, not only in Lithuania.

In Lithuania, there's a special law requiring that deals related to strategic objects should meet national security interests.

Nemunas Biknius, CEO at Amber Grid, said in late May he had no information that Alvora could buy products from companies having at least some links with Russia. The company said the value of these elements make 0.2 percent (around 150,000 euros) of the total project.

Sidlauskas says his company initially planned to buy from Italian company Allied International S.r.l but the plan was later affected by the coronavirus and the closure of all productions plants in Italy.

Lithuanian Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas says he learned about Alvora's deal with the Russian company in late May, adding that Amber Grid will not approve this deal.

Billionaire Andrey Komorov, one of the richest people in Russia, is chairman and a shareholder of ChelPipe Group.

In 2012, the company signed an agreement with the Russian Defense Ministry, on a military program to support the military units in the Sverdlovsk region where barracks were renovated and a modern gym was installed.

ChelPipe Group is also among suppliers of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.

Worth almost 80 mln euros, excluding VAT, the GIPL contract with Alvora was signed in December, and the projects is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2021.