RWE Transgas says it expects to hike natural gas prices for Czech customers by around 10 percent in the summer to keep pace with increased charges from its main supplier, Russia’s Gazprom.
Gazprom had already indicated in February that it expected to increase its prices by 15 percent and RWE Transgas was already prepared to pass on part of that rise, RWE Transgas spokesman Martin Chalupský told the daily Hospodářské noviny.
Fear of even higher price rises were stirred when Gazprom’s general manager Alexei Miller warned at the start of the week that prices for long-term gas buyers such as RWE Transgas might rise faster than originally expected to around $500/1,000 m3 by November from an average price of around $346 during the first quarter of the year.
RWE Transgas is the biggest natural gas importer and distributor in the Czech Republic with around 84 percent of the gas consumption market in 2009. Its market share is being eroded, however, by new gas suppliers, such as state-owned electricity producer ČEZ and Slovak gas company SPP.
The purchase price of natural gas makes up around 80 percent of the final gas bill to customers with major producers, such as Gazprom, tying their charges to movements in the global price of oil.
RWE Transgas, which is 100-percent owned by German energy giant RWE, has long-term contracts for supplies from Gazprom. The parent company says that it wants to take over haggling over the terms of gas supply contracts for RWE Transgas from its Czech unit as a move to boost efficiency — and its negotiating muscle.
