Greece's Depa Wins Case Over Supply Deal with Turkey's Botas
Greek gas firm Depa confirmed to NGW on January 17 it had won a decade-old international arbitration case against Turkish counterpart Botas over a gas supply deal.
The case, opened in 2009, concerned the price Depa paid Botas for gas imports under a long-term contract. Depa officials declined to provide details of the ruling by the International Court of Arbitration in Paris, other than that it would involve a retroactive price reduction.
Under a contract signed in February 2003, Botas re-exports up to 750mn m3/tr of Azeri gas to Greece via the Turkey-Greece interconnector, commissioned in November 2007. Exports began as soon as the pipe link opened.
The contract, which runs until 2021, was subject to a previous arbitration case opened by Botas in 2011, reportedly over Depa failing to meet its take-or-pay commitments.
The court ruled in favour of Botas in 2015, issuing an award to the company which the Turkish government claimed at the time was worth $100mn.
Botas’ annual exports to Greece have averaged just over 650mn m3 over the past five years. According to the latest monthly data published by Turkish energy regulator EPDK, exports totalled 71mn m3 in October last year.