In order to reduce gas competition and mitigate the volatility of gas prices, the European Union forms a pool of gas market participants (sellers and buyers). Today, April 25, at 9 a. m., AggregateEU started, and gas sellers began to provide their forecasts and offers for the coming year. From May 27, the period for concluding gas contracts will begin: after analysing the provided information, gas buyers will submit their offers.
The main sellers are expected to be Germany's Uniper SE and France's Engie SA, and whether they will participate in AggregateEU and what the level of purchases will be is unknown. However, it is known that non-EU countries will also be invited to joint purchases; specifically — Ukraine. The first contracts will be concluded in June and will be moderated by Prisma European Capacity Platform GmbH.
"Following the first tender, the EU plans to organize more joint purchases, mandating that governments pool demand for 15% of their gas inventories stored for winter. That target equates to roughly 13 billion cubic meters this year — or about 3% of the EU’s total demand," Bloomberg.
These obligations apply to all member states of the European Union, but not to companies. Some experts believe that the essence of AggregateEU is primarily political.
