Lithuania’s Prime Minister, Algirdas Butkevicius is hoping Norway’s Statoil will lower the price it charges for liquid natural gas. 

Lithuania’s state owned gas company, Litgas is soon to conclude negotiations with Statoil, said Butkevicius on Monday.

The negotiations between Statoil and Litgas are happening, despite a five-year deal being signed in late 2014 between the two for the supply of 2.7 billion cubic metres over a five year period.

With the consumption and price of gas dropping, Lithuania’s LNG plant at Klaipeda has become less economically viable. Talks are said to centre around extending the deal to ten years and lowering the price of gas supplied.

Under the current deal, the supply of gas is said to be worth in the region of €720 million to €870 million. The need for negotiations has highlighted the problems with the once hailed LNG plant that broke the Russian gas monopoly in Lithuania and the general region.