Gas utility DEPA’s sales, down by approximately 210 million euros in 2019, a year in which gas consumption and import records were broken, highlight the domestic gas market’s intensified competition and impact on the corporation, which has just posted its annual results for last year on the company website.

Gas consumption in the Greek market last year reached 57.4 TWh, up from 52.4 TWh in 2018, while gas imports in 2019 totaled 57.7 TWh, the majority, 54.5 percent, in the form of LNG and the remaining 45.5 percent as pipeline gas.

Intensified competition and lower LNG prices were cited as key reasons behind DEPA’s reduces sales, from 970.9 million euros in 2018 to 760 million euros last year.

“International gas market conditions during 2019 were characterized by significant price reductions at international hubs and an LNG oversupply, which led to a corresponding reduction of LNG prices in spot markets,” DEPA noted.

These conditions encouraged opportunistic imports by major consumers in Greece who generally cover a great part of their needs through DEPA long-term supply contracts, the gas utility noted.

Besides lower LNG prices, DEPA’s long-term contracts for pipeline gas supply were another factor behind DEPA’s reduced sales figures in 2019.

DEPA’s administration successfully negotiated a supply contract revision with Russia’s Gazprom, effective as of the second half of 2019, enabling greater LNG indexing on pipeline gas prices. This revision will help bring about a rebound, the company anticipates.