Greece's DEPA signs out-of-court agreement with Gazprom on gas prices

DEPA Commercial, the Greek gas supplier, announced on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement outside of court in its dispute with Gazprom regarding gas prices.

DEPA signed with Gazprom a contract in January 2022 for 2 billion cubic meters of gas annually through 2026. The price was 80% index to the Dutch TTF benchmark price, with the remaining 20% index to oil prices.

DEPA, however, struggled to sell gas in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The drop in Russian pipeline deliveries also contributed to a rise in European gas prices. Eventually DEPA was unable accept its minimum annual quantities.

According to the terms of a take-or pay contract, buyers are required to pay for gas regardless of whether they receive delivery or not. Untaken volumes will be carried forward to the end as a credit.

DEPA filed an arbitration last year, seeking to lower the gas prices in the contract retroactively, as well a relief from future payments of hundreds of millions dollars.

DEPA Commercial announced in a press release that it had reached an agreement out of court with Gazprom export, which resolved the differences between the parties by consensus. Gazprom, it said, had sent a compromise to DEPA following arbitration.

The statement said that the agreement resolved all issues relating to the gas quantity taken up in previous years, and DEPA secured competitive gas prices for 2025-2026.

Gazprom refused to comment on this deal. Angeliki Koutantou is the reporter. Vladimir Soldatkin contributed additional reporting. Mark Potter (Editing)

(source: Reuters)