Most of Malta’s gas is purchased by Electrogas not by the government

This is part of my ongoing investigation on Malta’s gas purchases and the total of €1 billion in subsidies that will be spent across three years to tamp down electricity and food prices. My latest piece was a recapitulation of the government’s losses on the purchase of gas via an oil-indexed link system. The latter article was made possible thanks to the data obtained by Opposition MP Mark Anthony Sammut.

Thanks to another Parliamentary Question by Mark Anthony Sammut, we know that it is Electrogas that is the biggest purchaser of locally imported gas and the government buys electricity from Electrogas. The government’s purchases are intended for its own plant which is co-owned by Shanghai Electric.

The Delimara 3 gas-fired plant is managed by a company called D3 Power Generation Limited and is co-owned by Enemalta but majority-owned by Shanghai Electric through the Maltese registered company SEP (Malta) Holding.

Looking at SEP (Malta) Holdings’ accounts for 2020 they claim to have made a loss of more than €10 million, but their accounts for 2021 and 2022 aren’t available yet. I also still need to read carefully through their accounts since despite their claimed losses, they have also claimed an operating profit.

Electrogas made a staggering profit last year, and if Electrogas is buying gas at the oil-indexed system that the government has claimed to be using for its own purchases, then in that case, for Electrogas to be making a profit, Enemalta must be paying a very heavy premium for the electricity with government subsidies going directly to the pockets of Electrogas. It is also noteworthy to note that in Miriam Dalli’s team of consultants, she does not have one single person or expert in energy commodities or commodities trading. More significantly, the general public is being kept in the dark about Malta’s energy and electricity purchases and arrangements with its suppliers, and we have to try and figure it out ourselves. There is also the growing suspicion that many of the details on gas purchases are being witheld by the Ministry due to potentially having signed agreements that heavily favour the suppliers.