German energy giant Uniper, one of the largest customers of Russia's Gazprom, has initiated talks with the German government on possible measures to stabilize its finances amid low Russian gas deliveries and soaring gas prices.
"Uniper entered into discussions with the German government on possible stabilization measures for which a number of instruments could be considered, such as guarantees and collateral, increasing the current not yet drawn KfW credit facility, and equity investments," the company said in a statement.
Uniper also withdrew its outlook for the financial year 2022 with regard to adjusted EBIT and adjusted net income, and expects those two metrics to be significantly below in the second half of 2022 compared to the respective prior-year figures due to low gas supply from Russia.
Moscow drastically cut supply to Germany via Nord Stream in the middle of June, sparking a new gas price surge in Europe and renewed concerns about how the continent would cope with gas and power supply this winter.
"Since 16 June 2022, Uniper has received only 40% of the contractually committed gas volumes from Gazprom. Uniper uses flexibilities in its portfolio as well as substitution of volumes to ensure security of supply for its customers. However, Uniper currently procures substitution volumes at significantly higher prices," the company said.
Uniper cannot pass those additional costs to customers, and it is registering significant financial losses.
"There are also major uncertainties regarding the geopolitical situation, as well as the duration and scope of Russian gas supply restrictions. Against this background, gas price developments are also difficult to assess at present," said the German energy firm.
Earlier this month, Germany saved a former Gazprom unit it had expropriated in April with a multi-billion-euro loan to ensure the security of supply. Gazprom Germania GmbH was the German unit of Gazprom until a few months ago, before the German government placed Gazprom Germania under the trusteeship of the German energy regulator to ensure the security of supply after Russia invaded Ukraine.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More