Remember when worldwide oil prices dropped to a record low due to COVID-19 disruptions? Well, with a true end to the global pandemic’s still nowhere in sight, prices for gas have also continued to plummet everywhere… except in Malta, where our price is now some seven times higher than our entire continent’s average.

When it comes to Liquid Natural Gas (or LNG as it’s more commonly known), Malta is still paying the fixed price of $11.50 (or €9.40) per unit of gas. In comparison, the average price for LNG in Europe at the moment is $1.67. The global average is just a bit more, $1.81.

That puts Malta’s price at 6.8 times the European average, or in percentage terms, a mark-up of 588%.

This rate of $11.50 – which is the price at which Electrogas buys gas from Azerbaijan’s state-owned Socar – is fixed until April 2022, as per a contoversial $1-billion deal that had been exposed and published by the Daphne Project in 2018, following the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Energy Minister Michael Farrugia, who has reportedly been sent numerous questions and reminders on the matter, has yet to give a public statement on the matter.