EU To Publish Results Of Gazprom Pricing Probe By Spring -- Commissioner

The European Union expects to publish the results of its investigation into OAO Gazprom's (GAZP.RS) pricing and contract policy by "spring next year," EU energy chief Guenther Oettinger said Thursday.

"I can't say which month or which day. But it's not a never-ending story," the commissioner said in Vilnius , adding EU experts would complete their "analysis in [the] next six months."

Brussels launched its probe into the Russian fuel giant's use of long-term contracts in September 2012 over suspected infringement of EU competition rules in member states including Bulgaria , the Czech Republic , Estonia , Hungary , Latvia , Lithuania , Poland and Slovakia .

Speaking in Lithuania --holder of the EU's rotating presidency--Oettinger said the move had no political overtones and urged Gazprom to play by EU rules. "Our Russian partners have to understand and to accept that we have European Union rules. [It] means we are market-based, market-oriented," he said.

Lithuania has repeatedly accused Gazprom of unfair prices. The Russian energy giant is the post-Soviet Baltic state's only natural gas supplier, via a pipeline across Belarus .

Vilnius is attempting to break that monopoly by constructing a liquefied natural gas terminal, which is due to start operations by the end of 2014. The Baltic republic is also seeking EU funding for a gas pipeline linking it with larger southern EU neighbor Poland .