Company briefs - 2012-04-19

Irish low-fare airline Ryanair has started to repay its debt to the Latvian air navigation services company Latvijas Gaisa Satiksme (LGS), reports business daily Dienas Bizness. LGS Board Chairman Davids Taurins informed the newspaper that the company has received 201,000 euros from Ryanair, as well as the airline’s letter in which it resolves to settle the remaining debt of 580,589 euros. LGS previously turned to the Riga Regional Court with a claim over the airline’s debts for LGS services. Ryanair operated with 14.9 million euros in net profit in the third quarter of the current business year. The airline’s turnover increased 13 percent to 844 million euros.

“Lithuania is building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal for its own use, while a Baltic regional terminal cannot be constructed before 2017 because of Latvia’s contracts with Gazprom,” said Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius on Latvian Economy Minister Daniels Pavluts’ comments that it would not pay off for Lithuania to build a terminal that has no potential to become regional, reports ELTA. “We have estimated everything at the Klaipeda LNG terminal project very carefully and see a realistic economic prospect to have cheaper gas. If we had such terminal now, we would pay 30 percent less for gas. I believe that Gazprom, seeking to retain competitiveness in Lithuania, would also try to lower the gas price. The terminal we are about to build is for our own use rather than to serve the region,” Kubilius said on the radio Ziniu Radijas. “Things in Latvia are moving much slower. From what I know from the Latvian prime minister, they cannot change anything in the country’s gas market before 2017 because they say they have contracts with Gazprom. That means that any plans to have a regional LNG terminal, be it in Riga, can be implemented only after 2017. We cannot afford waiting till 2017 or 2018,” he said.