The Latvian Parliament has approved the amendments of the Energy Law drafted by the Economy Ministry, which plans to gradually open up the gas market until April 2017. The liberalization of the gas market will take place in several stages with the process beginning on 4 April 2014. The objective of the amendments is to transpose the Third Energy Package of the European Union into Latvian legislation to ensure liberalization of the natural gas market of Latvia, encourage alternative supplies and competition on the market.
The Latvian gas market is currently dominated by vertically-integrated company Latvijas Gaze and Russia remains the sole supplier of natural gas to Latvia.
Meanwhile, the Latvian Parliament approved in the first reading amendments to the Electricity Market Law to postpone opening up the residential market from 1 April 2014 until 1 January 2015 to allow households to be supplied at Latvenergo regulated electricity tariffs up until 31 December 2014. With electricity market deregulation and the ending of subsidized prices planned by law on 1 April 2014 residential electricity prices are expected to increase by up to 40%.
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