The average price of gas imported into Germany in May 2012 was Eur30.40/MWh ($37.06/MWh), down 0.8% from April, German customs agency BAFA said Monday.
It said May gas imports cost an average Eur8,435.99 per Terajoule.
The price was up 18.8% from May 2011, boosted by the strength of oil.
In volume terms, Germany imported 308,922 TJ in May 2012 (8.1 billion cubic meters), up 5% from the same month in 2011.
In January-May 2012, Germany imported 1,680,758 TJ, down 4.8% from the same period of 2011.
The three most important suppliers in the five month period were Russia at 633,079 TJ, Norway at 548,351 TJ and the Netherlands at 420,895 TJ.
The value of gas imports from Russian, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish and UK sources in the five month period was Eur14.2 billion, compared with Eur12.1 billion in the previous year period.
SPOT GAS PRICES
The average spot gas price in Germany, based on Platts day-ahead prices at the NetConnect Germany and GASPOOL hubs, was around Eur24.35/MWh in May 2012.
So spot gas was around Eur6/MWh cheaper than the average price of gas imported into Germany. The average price includes lots of gas imported into Germany under long-term, oil-indexed contracts.
The fact that spot gas has been running much cheaper than oil-indexed gas for the past couple of years has driven major gas importers like E.ON and RWE to seek reductions to the prices they pay under long-term, oil-linked import deals with producers like Russia's Gazprom.
E.ON recently announced it had won a deal with Gazprom that is expected to cut E.ON's costs by around 7-10%. RWE remains in arbitration with Gazprom.
Gazprom is thought likely to have offered RWE similar terms -- a price cut of up to 10% -- as it has offered other major importers.
But RWE may be holding out for not just a change in price levels, but in the price formation mechanism.
While E.ON has said repeatedly it was looking for a shift to spot gas-indexation for its long-term imports, analysts have said that despite the price concessions that it won, its imports remain substantially oil-linked.
