Watch: Malta losing tens of millions from ‘poor’ $1 billion Azerbaijan energy deal

Contract details previously concealed from the public indicate that taxpayers are losing tens of millions of euros from the new gas-fired power station deal, analysis of leaked documents shows. A cache of 680,000 leaked files from the Electrogas consortium, which built and operates the new power station, sheds new light on the secretive energy deals signed by the government. The files had been leaked to journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, months before her assassination on October 16. They were later shared with the Daphne Project. One of the contracts found in the leak concerns a $1 billion deal that Electrogas entered with Azerbaijan’s state-owned company Socar, through which Malta will import all its gas needs from the company for 10 years. The price at which Electrogas buys gas from Socar is fixed at €9.40 per unit for five years, until April 2022, the leaked contracts show. The multiple energy contracts, signed in April 2015, bind Enemalta to buy €131.6 million worth of LNG from Electrogas yearly. Since the deals were inked, oil and gas prices have crashed. This LNG provision by Electrogas is contracted out to Socar, who in turn buy it at lower marker prices from energy...