VILNIUS – Lithuania has failed in its final bid in the almost-eight-year-old dispute with Russia's Gazprom to get around 1.4 billion euros in compensation for Russian gas it paid too much for in 2004-2012 after the Supreme Court of Sweden rejected in later December its request to review the Swedish Court of Appeal's ruling unfavorable to Lithuania.

The latter court upheld the Stockholm arbitration's 2016 ruling unfavorable to Lithuania.

"The Supreme Court of Sweden made the decision in late December not to review the July, 2019 ruling by the Swedish Court of Appeal when it decided not to annul the Stockholm arbitration court's ruling in Lithuania's case against Gazprom. The court did not provide the motives for its decision," Lithuania's Ministry of Energy told BNS.

The litigation at the Stockholm arbitration courts and other Swedish courts cost Lithuania almost 10.5 million euros, with around 9.5 million euros spent on legal services during the process at the Stockholm arbitration coiurt in 2012-2016, and another around 950,000 euros spent in 2016-2019 when Lithuania appealed against the arbitration ruling with Swedish courts, the ministry said.

In the dispute with Gazprom, Lithuanian was represented by the United States' Shearman &Sterling, one of the major law firms in the world, as well as Lithuanian lawyers from Lawin and Tark Grunte Sutkiene.

The Stockholm arbitration court ruled in June, 2016 that Gazprom had a conflict of interest in acting as both a shareholder of Lietuvos Dujos (Lithuanian Gas) and a supplier of gas to Lithuania, but it did not award the compensation of around 1.5 billion euros sought by Lithuania for gas supplied by Gazprom in 2004-2012.

Lithuania appealed the arbitration ruling with the Swedish Court of Appeal, and the latter refused to change it in July, forcing Lithuania to turn to the Supreme Court.