Cabinet to Transfer All GasCo Accounts to Oschadbank

The Cabinet of Ministers decided yesterday to transfer all gas distribution companies’ accounts to Oschadbank. Currently, GasCos have accounts with nineteen different banks, and by moving them all to Oshadbank, the Ministry of Fuel & Energy hopes to increase payment volumes from gas consumers, transaction speed and transparency by making it more difficult for GasCos to hide the real amount of payments received from consumers. Elena Sergeyeva: In response, GasCos pledged to appeal the Cabinet’s resolution in court, but in our view, the transfer of their accounts to Oschadbank has a high probability of being implemented. If adopted, this scheme would bring more transparency to the procedure of collecting gas payments from end consumers. The NERC, the industry’s regulator, would then have a more reliable base to review weighted average GasCo tariff, which we expect this year. Our forecast is a 45% increase.