Baltic States – CIS, Energy, Legislation, Lithuania

Unit 1 will be decommissioned starting 1 January, 2015, while Unit 2 will be decommissioned starting from 1 April, 2015, the company said in a press release.

Units 1 and 2 of the Lithuanian power plant, built in 1962-1965, are non-competitive, require significant investment in repairs and were mainly used for the production of heat power. They will be replaced by the new facility which will produce heat from biofuel in Elektrenai, the company said.

Gazprom lawyers will be among others to consult over the decommissioning process of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). An hour of advice will cost LTL 1,000 (EUR 290), writes Lietuvos rytas.

Such news shocked the Government, but it is already too late to refuse the lawyers' services. Company DLA Piper will oversee that the radioactive storage near Ignalina NPP is completed as soon as possible. The company recently won a tender to provide legal services to Ignalina NPP. What is interesting is that the company is working with the Russian gas concern Gazprom. It helped the concern win important arbitrage cases and represented the Russians in their disputes with Ukraine. Even though Lithuania is also settling a dispute with Gazprom through arbitration it did not prevent DLA Piper from winning a LTL 8.5 million (EUR 2.5 million) tender.

Minister of Energy Rokas Masiulis did not answer the daily Lietuvos Rytas questions on Monday, DLA Piper representatives remained silent as well.