Gas more expensive for Sarajevo Canton than for the Netherlands: Has someone built themselves into the gas price?

By: Almir Bečarević

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In a set of announcements that Energoinvest released these days, and only after the TV appearance of Bisera Hadžialjević, an offer for the purchase of additional gas quantities for the Sarajevo Canton was presented. These additional gas quantities could not be procured from Gazprom, so they resorted to an “original” offer from a “market” gas supplier. It is not important that it remained unknown what “market gas supplier” means, i.e., which company it is, but the price of that additional gas was given.

I must admit that in my 22 years in the gas industry, I have not seen a higher price for 1000 Sm3, and that price is several times higher than the price of gas when natural gas was purchased during the gas crisis with Ukraine in 2009, when half of Europe had no gas. 

To clarify what kind of gas price this is, I will present the current gas price on the TTF Netherlands exchange, which is the reference price for Europe. Today, that price is 1,100 USD per 1000 Sm3. 

So, we have an offer of 1,600 USD per 1000 Sm3 from the neighborhood, while on the most reference exchange we have a price of 1,100 USD. The difference between these two prices for 500,000 Sm3 is 250,000 USD.

I believe I can ask a clear question: has someone built themselves into these additional gas quantities, and could it have been cheaper from some other ‘market gas supplier’.

At the same time, this gas must be paid in advance. If Energoinvest were procuring gas for its own needs, would it be at this price, and would they seek multiple offers from various “market” suppliers? 

To understand the amount of money that will be spent on this procurement, it can be understood from the following fact: the required amount of 1.48 million KM for 500,000 Sm3 is approximately the total value of gas for the needs of the Sarajevo Canton in one month, for example, for the month of August in 2021.

The 500,000 Sm3 being procured as an emergency is an amount that is not even 50% of the required gas quantities for today. So, Energoinvest has secured an “original” offer that needs to be paid 1.48 million KM for half a day of gas consumption in the Sarajevo Canton, without solving the gas procurement problem.

Is it possible that natural gas for the Sarajevo Canton is more expensive than for the Dutch market, and that from the most expensive exchange in Europe? 

Now another question arises: was all this done to play a game with a “market gas supplier” and extract 1.5 million KM, which is the value of gas for one summer month, compared to half a day of gas needs on a winter day? 

What it looks like when Energoinvest procures gas from “market” players is found in the following sentences, I quote:    

“Energoinvest did not ask for anything. Energoinvest submitted the original offer to Sarajevogas. Sarajevogas has the original offer of a market gas supplier, which has a value at the border in Zvornik. The price is extremely high; when converted, it is 1,600 dollars per 100 cubic meters, which is extremely high and a very high price compared to what we have,” she stated.”

I note that the current price for Sarajevogas, converted to USD, is about 400 USD. Let everyone judge whether 1,600 USD is a lot compared to 1,100 USD from the most expensive exchange in Europe.