Energy Minister Miriam Dalli told journalists on Monday that the through the nine-month LNG gas supply agreement, signed with energy giants BP, prices of offered liquefied natural gas will vary depending on market prices.
Hence, no fixed price was negotiated for the duration of this contract, which commences this summer and expires at the end of May 2027. The current SOCAR Electrogas contract runs out this August.
She shared that current forecasts project the total unit price, under this BP LNG deal, to stand at around €0.119. Minister Dalli said on Monday that "the price will be varying, as it has in the last few years." She stated that, at times in recent years, the unit price for electricity exceeded this amount, while other times the price was less.
For comparison, Dalli said that the interconnector's current prices are hovering around €0.124.
Dalli said that BP was selected as the LNG supplier for this contract after Enemalta concluded that it pitched the best offer among the numerous companies that approached Maltese authorities to strike a deal.
She said, as confirmed by a ministry spokesperson by this newsroom, that the LNG prices throughout the duration of this 9-month contract will not be fixed, but will be linked to the TTF Index - which serves as one of the main benchmarks in Europe for natural gas pricing.
When contacted by this newsroom, Dalli's ministry said that this index "provides a transparent mechanism based on actual conditions in the European gas market. In this way, the price is determined according to international market conditions rather than through a fixed price."
Minister Dalli did not reveal how much the contract, overall, is expected to cost the Maltese islands.
"Now we will be depending on market volatility," Opposition MP says
During Parliament's first plenary of this fifteenth legislature on Monday, PN MP Mark Anthony Sammut criticised that, contrary to what Prime Minister Abela said earlier in the session, this BP LNG contract does not come with a fixed unit price for the supplied gas.
Sammut said that through the government's handling of the national supply of liquefied natural gas, "now we will be depending on market volatility."
He added that the Prime Minister, when asked about this, did not say whether a price ceiling was agreed upon to limit gas prices amidst volatile energy prices worldwide.
The Opposition MP stated that the way Abela's government and Energy Minister Miriam Dalli have handled this situation shows that this administration is moving along by "management by crisis."
He also noted that the Prime Minister did not commit himself to publishing the BP LNG contract, as the Nationalist Party demanded earlier on Monday afternoon.