Some of Europe's protracted gas contract disputes were settled last year, but not all. Gazprom has yet to agree on repricing of its 9 billion cubic meter per year term contract with RWE, although the German utility said last week that the arbitration wrangle might be settled amicably by next month. The stakes are high, both commercially and financially. If RWE's oil-indexed contract switched to spot gas linkage, as the company wants, 2013 "could be the year in which the share of total European gas supply priced under oil-indexed formulas falls to less than 50%," Thierry Bros, senior gas analyst at French bank Societe Generale, said earlier this year (WGI Jan.30' 13). Bros told WGI this week that the RWE-Gazprom arbitration still represents the 50-50 "tipping point."
展开▼
