ATHENS – Europe must adopt a new benchmark index for setting natural gas prices, since the current benchmark (the Dutch TTF) no longer reflects the balance between supply and demand, is unreliable and leads – due to speculative moves – to extremely high prices, Constantinos Xifaras, DEPA’s CEO, said on Thursday.

Xifaras stressed that the Greek government has submitted proposals to European leaders to deal with the current crisis and future challenges. “My view is – and it is supported by facts – that TTF no longer reflects the balance between supply and demand and we must accept that it must cease to be the main benchmark point for natural gas prices in Europe,” he said, adding that the current supply of LNG in Europe combined with the high levels of natural gas storage already achieved should have led prices lower. Xifaras noted that Europe cannot accept speculation caused by derivatives’ transactions which lead natural gas prices to extremely high levels and are not reflecting the real cost of the energy product. The volume of natural gas traded in the TTF index is 100 times bigger than the volume of natural gas traded in the Dutch market. Xifaras said this imbalance begun before the Russian invasion in Ukraine and noted that this benchmark was no longer reliable. He added that it would be more efficient for the EU to create a new benchmark index based on the real balance of supply/demand.