Growing pressure to de-link European oil and gas prices

Gazprom’s latest renegotiations of its long-term gas supply contracts resulted in lower prices for the buyers, but no attempt to move away from oil indexation. But with spot gas prices in Europe forecast to remain depressed, the pressure to de-link oil and gas prices continues to grow. Vanya Dragomanovich reports

After a protracted tug-of-war over the pricing of long-term gas supply contracts that included the threat of arbitration, Germany’s E.On and Russia’s Gazprom agreed in early July that the latter gas giant would lower its contract prices by 7–9% but otherwise leave the pricing structure of the contract intact. Under the retroactive deal, Gazprom also said it would pay E.On €1 billion in July and August.

While the current round of price negotiations between major suppliers such as Gazprom (Europe