untitled design

Hard bargains with the Russians for the price of gas

By Harry Floudopoulos

The meeting of the Prime Minister K. Mitsotakis with the Russian President V. Putin did not substantially differentiate the landscape around the pricing of the Russian gas imports to our country. This is at least clear from the energy reports made in the context of the statements of the two leaders. The Russian president, in particular, reiterated that Russia provides more than 40% of Greece’s energy needs. “Russia is fulfilling its obligations to Greece and the EU and will continue to supply gas continuously,” he added.

For his part, Mr. Mitsotakis underlined that “Russia has proven to be a reliable supplier of natural gas over time and Greece has proven to be a reliable partner. It is important that despite the volatile market conditions, deviate from the terms of the agreement “, the prime minister added, giving a clear position to the discussions that preceded in relation to the issue of pricing of gas imported from Russia.

It is recalled that before the meeting with Putin Mitsotakis, the competent Minister of Energy K. Skrekas had gone to St. Petersburg, the headquarters of Gazprom, where he met with the President of the Russian energy giant A. Miller.

It is worth noting that the Russian side since last summer has submitted a request to DEPA in order to link 100% of the import price of natural gas with the international price TTF. From 2019, when the contract was amended, the pricing is done at a rate of 60% based on the price of oil (oil indexed) and at a rate of 40% based on the TTF. This was because market conditions were more favorable at that time and international gas prices were extremely competitive. However, this year the situation has been completely reversed and TTF prices have increased from 19 to 100 euros / MWh.

In fact, Gazprom is said to have accepted DEPA’s request for a formula of 80% TTF 20% Oil index, subject to the reduction of the contracted quantities by 2026 to 2 billion. cubic meters. A decisive factor influencing the “hard” line followed by Gazprom is the fact that any agreement with the Greek side may affect its overall commercial policy towards its European customers.

In any case, given that Greece’s efforts to find a solution to the issue of the gas pricing formula at the political level did not bear fruit, the baton of negotiations passes again to the companies DEPA and Gazprom.

.

Source From: Capital

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular