Citing information showing global natural gas prices falling to their lowest level this year amid weakening global demand, opposition lawmakers and consumer advocacy groups yesterday accused CPC Corp, Taiwan, of unduly profiting at the public’s expense.
State-run CPC, which holds a monopoly on domestic natural gas supply, currently prices the commodity at NT$16.28 per square meter, a drop of NT$0.40 since January.
Demand is estimated to increase 35 percent from last year to about 12 million tonnes this year, CPC figures show.
This has allowed CPC to reap profits of NT$9 billion (US$292 million) so far this year, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday. The article quoted a company representative as saying that the minor adjustments were made to avoid any large fluctuations in prices.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, however, said the adjustments were “far too small,” adding that the price per square meter should drop by at least NT$6 to NT$8.
It is time to slash prices dramatically, DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said, as the state-run oil company is already near its legally mandated profit cap.
“CPC has already earned more than enough in the first six months of this year,” Chen said.
“There’s no reason why it should not be thinking of returning some of that profit to [the public],” she said.
The prices of some daily commodities, natural gas included, should be institutionalized and monitored by the legislature, DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said.
The government has already “eaten enough of the [public’s money],” she said.
Consumers’ Foundation chairman Hsieh Tien-jen (謝天仁) called the sustained high prices in Taiwan “unfair” because consumers would also have to pay higher for electricity generation.
State-run Taiwan Power Co purchases most of its natural gas suppplies from CPC.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas prices have dropped about 42 percent this year to their lowest point since September last year.
On spot purchases for immediate delivery, natural gas traded at US$3.47 per million BTU as of Oct. 15, compared with US$6.09 at the start of the year.
A Wall Street Journal report earlier this month said natural gas prices, which typically rise before winter, have been tempered by continued levels of high supply and projections of high levels of productions.
This is despite rising demand for the commodity in the Asia-Pacific region, analysts said in the report.
However, CPC president Lin Maw-wen (林茂文) said price fluctuations would remain minimal because imported natural gas was locked in 20 to 25-year long-term contracts, the Liberty Times reported.
About 18 percent was purchased on the open market and could be subject to immediate price changes, he said.
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