The PPD gas company on Friday dismissed the allegations that it had benefited from the sale of surplus gas at low prices and denied that it had purchased gas for one cent per megawatt-hour, calling on the authorities to investigate the case and explain procedures relating to the gas market.

The parliamentary Economy Committee discussed the matter at a thematic session on Thursday at which the head of energy market operator HROTE, Boris Abramovic, said that PPD had purchased 63 per cent of gas surpluses.

PPD said in a statement that “this was the allocation for balancing energy, that is surpluses and deficits of gas in the transport system, between active balance responsible parties on the Croatian gas market.”

“PPD or any other company with the role of balance responsible party so far has had no access to information on allocated shares. We consider it highly unprofessional that individuals have been using HROTE’s data for days even before HROTE made a calculation for June and have been showing them selectively,” the statement said.

The company said that it and the other balance responsible parties acted in line with rules and had no influence on allocated amounts. It noted that this system was working in the same way elsewhere in the EU.

PPD said that balance responsible parties purchase and sell surpluses and deficits of gas from the transport system to maintain the balance of the gas transport system.

The company noted it did not know which balance responsible party had caused a daily imbalance in the gas system and that they were working to ensure the security and operation of the transport system and consequently the security of gas supply.

A total of 11 balance responsible parties were involved in the balancing process and many of them ended June with negative balancing energy, the company said, noting that such cases happened every month for the past six years on the regulated energy markets in Croatia.

“We fully reject the insinuations that any of the 11 balance responsible parties was favoured in any way in this process because the balance responsible parties do not know who caused the imbalance in the system,” PPD said.

The company said that at daily auctions of balancing energy in June, it had purchased 3,702 MWh of negative balancing energy, and that it had not purchased gas for one cent per megawatt-hour.