Russian company Gazprom has reached an agreement with the North Macedonia company Makpetrol to lower the price of the methane in North Macedonia (compressed natural gas – CNG) by 13%. As a result, instead of 110 MKD per kg, starting from yesterday, at Makpetrol’s kg methane can be purchased for 96 MKD.
Starting from the 1st of January this year, a problem arose with the methane in the country, when Gazprom increased the price of the methane two-fold, so from 46,5 MKD/kg it rose to 110 MKD/kg. JSP-Skopje and the private bus transporters who have a fleet running on methane reacted to this enormous price rise.
According to current data from the fuelo.net web site which is a specialized page that is monitoring the fuel prices throughout the world, at the moment, Macedonian drivers are paying the most expensive methane among the countries in the region. In Bulgaria, the methane price at gas stations is 2,86 levs/kg i.e. 90MKD/kg. In Greece, the current prices of methane are 0,837 EUR/kg or 51,5 MKD. For quite a while, Serbia has been having the lowest prices for CNG in the region or 94, 5 RSD/kg i.e. 49,4 MKD. The information at fuelo.net shows that the methane can be purchased more expensively in Italy and Germany, but on the other hand, in countries such as Belgium and Spain this fuel is evidently cheaper.
Otherwise, after the enormous methane price rise since the start of the year, the Regulatory Energy and Water Services Commission of North Macedonia issued a press release that it has no authority in regulating the price for this type of fuel. Due to the Law on Energetics, the methane price is determined by the market together with the natural gas.
Makpetrol issued a press release yesterday that with the new agreement with Gazprom, the price of the gas delivered in North Macedonia will lower during February. The price of natural gas will drop by 204 EUR per 1000 normal cubic meters compared to January which will lower the price of natural gas.
According to Makpetrol, it has concluded a “great agreement” with Gazprom which will provide its business partners gas price that will be lower by 30% compared to the stock market prices.
Otherwise, as a consequence of the enormous price rise of natural gas at the start of the year in Europe, which influenced the gas price that is delivered in this country, the price for the heating system in Skopje rose on the 1st of January by 14% for its final beneficiaries. The government of North Macedonia decided to declare a state of crisis in the delivery of heat energy and the state company ECM temporarily took over the management with BEG and Skopje Sever company in order to provide continuous delivery of heating energy for the users in Skopje.
