Friday, 30th January 2009 - 14:41CET
Oil hedging left balance of $10.7m - Enemalta
Enemalta said this afternoon that its hedging of oil prices over the past 15 months had kept electricity tariffs stable and left a positive balance of $10.7 million.
The corporation published a 15-month account of its profits and losses as a result of hedging. It said it had a positive balance in the first months as oil prices rose. The $46m profit made during this period was used to keep the surcharge lower than it would have been without hedging.
As oil prices collapsed over the past four months, the profit made in the previous months was almost completely eclipsed.
"It is clear, however, that at no time did hedging keep electricity bills higher than they should have been," the corporation said.
The figures show that while Enemalta saved $9.3 million on oil purchases in June and $7 million each in May and July, as international oil prices soared, but it made losses of $16 million last month, $12.5 million in November and $7 million in October as prices dropped fast.
Enemalta recalled the policy paper prepared by the Hedging Policy committee headed by Roderick Chalmers where it was declared that Enemalta's purpose in hedging oil prices was no to make a profit but to maintain price stability as far as possible despite fluctuations in international oil prices.
That purpose, Enemalta said, had been met.
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Comments
But there are two items that confuse me; First the tariffs were not kept stable since we had several surcharges added on to our bills. The second if the new tariff rates are not the direct result of the oil price increase, since the company registered a profit, then what is the reason for the hike in the tariffs? Is it to support a lame duck?
Or is it to finance the cost to upgrade the power supply system in the country and make it more environmentally friendly by 2010. The projected budget for this programme is 290 M €. 150 M € have already been granted by the EIB last September.
as far as i know the hedging agreement is now close to or already ended and hopefully we should see a reduction in utility rates in a few months' time, at least according to Dr Gonzi, though I must say, if I have learnt one thing, it's to never believe a politician's word as it's worth less than the paper it's written on.
Enemalta Corporation will your customers benefit at all from this balance of USD10.7 million?? Much as you are congratulating yourselves for these figures, Maltese families and businesses don't care if your balance is 10c or 100 million, they only care about the crazy BILLS they are receiving in their mailboxes.
You are living in a dream world if you think that we can get away from paying for the cost to run Enemalta - warts and all. The fact that there is a balance of 10 million means that you and I will not be paying the 10 million. We should be thankful!
As for the inefficiencies at Enemalta the fact is that to make it lean and mean means that a substantial number of semi skilled persons, probably most in the later years of their careers, will need to be made redundant. If you can solve that problem without causing social upheavel then I am sure the Government will be more than pleased to consider your contribution.
So right, it was Enemalta that kept the bills higher
It seems that you did not read the statement correctly or you do not want to understand. See the losses of the last three months despite of 95 per cent surcharge and new tariffs. If profits were not made in previous months we will have to pay more. It is simple if you want to understand.