The Government already assumes that Algeria will raise the prices of the gas it supplies to Spain, but trusts that it will be a "moderate" increase.

However, it places the responsibility on the Naturgy company to ensure that there is not a large increase and frames the Algerian desire to review rates not in the lurch with Western Sahara but because of the new international energy scenario.

Those are the messages conveyed by the third vice president,

Teresa Ribera

, in statements to TVE and that contrast with the vision also expressed this Thursday morning by the president of Naturgy,

Francisco Reynés

.

Ribera has assured that "the intention of [the Algerian state company] Sonatrach is to raise prices, but that has been happening since October, because it understands that prices are well below the price at which gas was quoted in international markets."

"I trust it will be a moderate increase," he has assumed she has.

But he disassociates himself from the diplomatic crisis due to the government's support for the Sahara being absorbed by Morocco: " It is

time to review gas prices and it is a strictly commercial operation between companies.

It is not a relationship between governments."

He refers to the fact that the contract between Naturgy and Sonatrach provides for a review for the 2022-2024 period.

However, the president of Naturgy has assured in a meeting at the Spanish Confederation of Directors and Executives (CEDE) that it is not just a business negotiation.

"Everything influences", he has emphasized it.

"

Any political indication in Algerian decisions has much more impact than in a negotiation between private companies

", maintains the president of the gas company.

He underlines that the income of the public Sonatrach account for 80% of the Gross Domestic Product of Algeria, for which the instructions of the Algerian Government mark the talks.

"The

negotiation is not only company-company but also company-State

and weighs heavily on Algerian wealth". In fact, Ribera herself traveled to Algiers last October to try to save the Sonatrach concession to Naturgy to continue exploiting the gas pipeline that connects Algeria with Spain through Morocco.

One sign of politicization in this contract was the unusual statements last week by Sonatrach president

Tewfik Hakkar.

"Since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, gas and oil prices have skyrocketed. Algeria has decided to

maintain relatively correct contract prices for all its customers

. However, it is not ruled out to proceed with a 'recalculation' of prices with our Spanish client", said Hakkar in an interview with the official agency APS

Reynés has not revealed, as Ribera has done, that the current prices in the contract are indexed to Brent, instead of to the international gas market -which makes them cheaper- but he has assumed that the perspective is not precisely downward .

In his opinion, the European policy of past years against gas "

is encouraging producers to raise prices

" because they are not investing in improving production and efficiency.

Regarding the future, Reynés warned, according to Servimedia, that gas price futures are still "substantially" above 2021 levels at the end of 2023, and that in the next ten months the Dutch TTF will continue to be above the 100 euros.

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