Gazprom Signs New Contract with Croatian PPD
Croatian privately-owned gas supplier PPD (Prvo plinarsko drustvo) said September 15 it signed a long-term natural gas supply contract with Russia’s Gazprom lasting from October 1, 2017 to December 31, 2027.
“By signing this agreement, two companies confirmed the cooperation so far with the long-term framework which will contribute to the security of natural gas supply of the Croatian market,” said Vukovar and Zagreb-based PPD. Although the company did not respond to NGW with further details, Total Croatia News citing local news source Vecernij List said that Gazprom will deliver 1bn m3/yr under the contract.
Although pricing was not disclosed, the news media expected this would be indexed to Austria’s Baumgarten hub. They added that Gazprom had supplied 1.48bn m3 to PPD so far this year under a short term contract, was expected to deliver a further 0.25bn m3 under the new contract in 4Q2017, and that PPD has been a customer of Gazprom since 2012.
PPD’s website says it has a concession to distribute gas in Vukovar and nine municipalities in the Vukovar-Srijem county and is also the owner of the 595km distribution network in this region. It adds that it is owned by Croatia’s Energia Naturalis group.
A report published last year by Croatia's Institute of Public Finance said there were 55 gas suppliers in the country, of which 21 privately-owned, 23 state-owned, and 8 are in mixed ownership. Among the latter are INA, the main importer, a joint venture of the Croatian state and Hungary's Mol. But the report singled out PPD too, because of its gas import contacts initially with E.ON and subsequently with Gazprom, Hungary's MVM and others.
Mark Smedley