Edison wins Libya gas arbitration with Eni

Italian energy group Edison says it won a dispute with Eni to review the price of its long-term gas contract in Libya

Italian energy group Edison said on Monday it had won a dispute with Eni to review the price of its long-term gas contract from Libya, its second gas arbitration victory in less than a month.
"The overall impact on 2012 accounts of Edison is estimated in more than 250 million euros on EBITDA," the company said in a statement.
In September Edison, which is owned by France's EDF , won in arbitration a 450 million euro discount on its liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies from Qatar's Rasgas.
Arbitrations and renegotiations of long-term take-or-pay contracts have become widespread across Europe's gas industry as low spot prices on the wholesale market make existing long-term contracts unprofitable.
With import prices under long-term contracts typically indexed to rising oil prices, gas importers have booked heavy losses.
Russia's Gazprom agreed to amend long-term supply deals for Germany's EON in July after the utility lost hundreds of millions of euros on contracts linked to oil prices.
"Once again international arbiters have recognized that the gas market has structurally changed and have imposed a sale's price cut by the producer," Edison said.
Edison, which last year successfully challenged Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom to reduce the cost of long-term gas supplies for 2 billion cubic metres, expects arbitration over its Algerian gas contract to conclude in 2013.