Eni insists upon revision of the terms of Russian gas supplies
Eni tries to revise its contracts with Gazprom for the third time already. The corresponding letter has been sent to Gazprom Export. The Italian corporation can initiate a case in the arbitration court. Eni has expressed dissatisfaction with the terms of its contracts with Gazprom many times, in particular, take-or-pay principle.
The experts interviewed by Interfax think that Gazprom will meet the demands. Eni holds 20% in South Stream and participates in the Arctic shelf development with Rosneft. Within the last 2 years Gazprom has revised contracts with all its European contractors with exception for RWE, Lietuvos dujos and Naftogaz. The first two appealed to the court, and the point to benefits for the Ukraine is being solved at a governmental level for the latest 3 years.
The prices for European consumers are reduced retroactively, the so-called retroactive benefits when Gazprom returns to the contractors a part of received funds. Last year the monopoly signed out 133 billion rubles at the expense of the benefits.
It has granted preferences to the Italian consumers in gas price many times within the recent years. In 2010, Eni gained benefit of 15% at the expense of spot constituent in contracts. Last year the Italian Edison gained via legal actions price reduction that gained it $200 million annually. In the beginning of 2012, the sources reported anout a considerable reduction in price for Sinergie Italiane. In March 2012, Eni got the second retroactive benefit. The specialists think that the discount was 15% of $1.15 billion annually.
The chief of East European Gas Analysis,M. Korchemkin says that Russian gas remains one of the most expensive at the Italian market, more expensive than Algerian or Dutch gas. Italy is the third largest consumer of Russian gas following Germany and Turkey. In 2011, purchase of the fuel was 26 billion cubic m in Turkey, 17 billion cubic m in Italy and 34 billion cubic m in Germany.
P. Scaroni, the chief of Eni days that his company will either not prolong expiring take-or-pay contracts or will try to find a decision for the active one. In 2009-2011 the company paid Euro 1.5 billion per year for untaken gas.
All Gazprom’s contractors are dissatisfied with take-or-pay principle, especially the Ukraine that faced the demand to pay $7 billion for untaken gas. Several companies have achieved either full remove of the principle as the Czech RWE Transgaz or tempering of the terms as the Bulgarian Bulgargaz. The agreements about tempering of take-or-pay were achieved by nearly all European contractors including E. On.
Translated by Nadezhda Poltoratskaya
