Gazprom: 30% higher prices in Greece

Vice president of the Russian company Alexander Medvedev admitted earlier this week that Gazprom sells gas to Greece at 30% higher prices compared to other European countries.

According to data presented at a press conference in Moscow, while European countries buy 1,000 cubic meters of Russian gas to an average price of $ 380, Greece is supplied the same amount at 480-540 dollars.

Given that DEPA is imports each year about 2.5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas, the cap borne by Greek consumers every year is at least 250 million dollars.

Greece is at a disadvantage also in terms of reductions in prices for European companies as announced by Medvedev in the context of a strategy to recover volumes and markets under the threat of U.S. gas production and the respective related investments completed in Australia and West Africa.

So while the Russian company will proceed for the second consecutive year in renegotiations and refund (in 2012 it is estimated that it dropped prices by 7% and returned $ 3.3 billion and in 2013 it is expects to pay about 800-900 million dollars), Greece remains trapped in the price reductions agreed in 2011. This agreement binds DEPA to not proceed to a renegotiation until 2014.