Ukraine (bbabo.net), - The largest importer of Russian gas in Greece, DEPA, demands that Gazprom revise contract prices for gas and has turned to arbitration. One of the reasons is that the company doesn’t like that competitors buy Russian fuel cheaper.
DEPA applied to arbitration demanding a revision of the contract price for Gazprom gas. This was reported by Reuters with reference to the company's CEO Konstantinos Shifaras.
Sources told the agency that the Greek state-owned company is seeking a retroactive reduction in gas prices in the 2022 contract, and also wants to receive an exemption from future payments worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“We negotiated... About two years, a year and a half, to adjust prices, because that’s what we were aiming for. Commercial negotiations are currently underway, they have not stopped, but the company ... has taken the next step, which is to go to arbitration,” Konstantinos Shifaras said at the Energy and Gas Forum in Athens.
In January 2022, DEPA signed a contract with Gazprom for 2 billion cubic meters of gas per year until 2026 at a price indexed to the TTF hub price by 80%, and by 20% to the cost of oil. As a result, at the height of the energy crisis, when the cost of gas at the TTF reached $3.5 thousand per thousand cubic meters, DEPA could not sell gas and import even the minimum annual volumes. At the same time, the contract obliges, under the “take or pay” condition, to pay for minimum volumes, regardless of the actual selection. Unselected volumes are transferred to the end of the contract as a credit.
DEPA is also not happy with the fact that its competitors in Greece receive Russian gas cheaper.
"Gazprom should not have sold cheaper to DEPA's competitors because, of course, it would be difficult for DEPA to take all the agreed gas," one of the sources told Reuters.
We are talking about the energy company Mytilineos, which receives Russian gas, including in the form of LNG, from the Baltic Portovaya complex. Gazprom has been trading them since September 2022 not under long-term contracts, but on the spot market.
Greece's national gas transmission system operator DESFA reported that in 2023, Russian gas supplies to the country were restored and Gazprom's share increased to 47%. 2.23 billion cubic meters were supplied through gas pipelines, and 800 million cubic meters were delivered in the form of LNG.
“Overall, the DEPA dispute is one of the few examples of a traditional framework for resolving commercial disputes over long-term contracts. Which isn't so bad anymore. On the other hand, I am skeptical about the prospects for implementing arbitration decisions in the current geopolitical conditions,” says Deputy Director of the FNEB Alexey Grivach.
As bbabo.net reported, despite the geopolitical confrontation with the West and a decrease in supplies, Russia remains one of the main sources of gas supplies to Europe. In 2023, its share in fuel imports to the region amounted to more than 15%. Pipeline gas continued to be supplied directly to Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Hungary, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Romania.
According to the EU GTS operator platform ENTSOG, in 2023 Gazprom supplied 24 billion cubic meters via pipelines to EU countries. And for the whole of Europe, taking into account cargo from the Baltic Portovaya LNG complex and exports to Serbia and Moldova - 29 billion cubic meters. If we add LNG supplies to Europe from Yamal LNG and Cryogas Vysotsk to Gazprom’s volumes, then the total export of Russian gas to the region has already amounted to 50.4 billion cubic meters.
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