ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece’s state-controlled gas utility DEPA, earmarked for privatization this year, has won a legal case over a supply deal with Turkish state energy company BOTAS, DEPA said on Thursday.
The International Court of Arbitration (ICC) ruled on Wednesday that BOTAS should cut retrospectively the contractual gas prices that DEPA has paid, DEPA said in a statement.
The ruling is the last step in a 10-year legal battle between DEPA and BOTAS and its impact is being assessed by DEPA, it added.
A source with knowledge of the matter said new pricing would apply from 2011 to the present and that DEPA had paid BOTAS $181 million under a previous ruling of the arbitration court as part of the legal case which started in 2009.
BOTAS was not immediately available to comment.
DEPA imports pipeline and liquefied natural gas under long-term contracts with BOTAS, Russia’s Gazprom and Algeria’s Sonatrach. Its outstanding supply contract with BOTAS ends in 2021.
Greece has broken up DEPA and has launched a tender for the sale of a 100% stake in its distribution network. It plans to kick off the sale of a majority stake in DEPA’s wholesale and retail activities later in January.
Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Mark Potter
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