Greek gas supplier DEPA Commercial has reached an out-of-court agreement in a dispute with Gazprom over gas prices, DEPA Commercial said on Tuesday, without giving details.

In January 2022, DEPA signed a contract with Gazprom for 2 billion cubic metres of gas per year through 2026 at a price 80% indexed to the benchmark Dutch TTF price with the remaining 20% indexed to oil prices.

But DEPA struggled to sell its gas after a spike in European gas prices in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a drop in Russian pipeline deliveries, and eventually was unable to accept delivery of its minimum annual amounts.

Under take-or-pay contract terms, buyers must pay for gas whether they can receive deliveries or not. Any untaken volumes are carried over to the end of the contract as a credit.

DEPA last year filed for arbitration, seeking a retroactive lowering of the gas price in the contract, as well as relief from future payments worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

“DEPA Commercial has reached an out-of-court agreement with Gazprom Export, resolving the differences that have arisen between the two parties by consensus,” DEPA Commercial said in a statement. It said Gazprom had submitted a compromise proposal to DEPA after the latter resorted to arbitration.

Under the agreement, all issues regarding the taking up of gas quantities in previous years were resolved, while DEPA also secured competitive gas supply prices for 2025 and 2026, the statement added.

Gazprom declined to comment on the deal.
Source: Reuters