Electrogas Malta said it sees “great potential” in the growing demand for gas for power, and so far has received 805,111 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Azerbaijan’s State-owned company SOCAR to the power plant in Malta, according to Azerbaijani media reports.

The potential for increase is associated with the growing tourist interest, ElectroGas Malta Consortium told Trend on Thursday, which describes itself as a news provider from the South Caucasus, Caspian region and Central Asia.

Electrogas told Trend that “any additional LNG supply required by Malta “will be supplied by SOCAR”.

In a separate news report, also published on Thursday on the Azerbaijani news site, Electrogas said it received 805,111 cubic metres of LNG – “This is equivalent to 0.56 billion cubic metres of natural gas by SOCAR, the LNG supplier to the project”.

The “Malta project is fully operational since January 2017 and the project partners are working well together to run the project efficiently and safely for the benefit of the Maltese people, ensuring security of clean energy supply for the island,” the consortium said.

Trend said it’s “specialised” news items cover such sectors as politics, business, oil and gas, transport and logistics, finance and banking in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

In April, The Guardian had reported that leaked contracts show that the price at which Electrogas buys gas from SOCAR was fixed at €9.40 per unit for five years.

Electrogas, which is one third owned by SOCAR, then sells on the gas to Malta’s energy corporation Enemalta.

A whistleblower had leaked a cache of 680,000 leaked files from the Electrogas consortium to assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. This data was analysed by The Daphne Project.

Since the deal was signed in 2015, gas and oil prices have crashed and, according to the Guardian,  Enemalta paid Electrogas at least €131.6 million for gas in 2017, nearly twice the open market rate.

SOCAR sold Electrogas Malta the same amount of gas and charged an estimated $153m, keeping $40 million. 

Through the Daphne Project – an investigation by more than 18 media organisations – it transpired that the Electrogas consortium, which built and operates the new power station, entered into a $1 billion deal with SOCAR.

Through this deal, Malta agreed to import all the gas needed to supply its power stations for the next 10 years.

Tourism minister Konrad Mizzi, piloted the project when he held the energy portfolio and, as revealed by The Shift News in April, he personally signed the agreement for the supply of LNG to the Electrogas power station for 18 years.

Although the government has kept this agreement hidden from the public, Malta’s anti-money laundering agency, the FIAU, had questioned Mizzi’s personal interest in the deal that gave SOCAR exclusivity on the supply of LNG.