- The EU’s AggregateEU platform for gas contracts sees overwhelming interest, with bids reaching three times the collective demand, boosting energy security amid geopolitical challenges
- The EU’s AggregateEU scheme, aimed at reducing reliance on Russian gas, attracts bids from international suppliers, with Norway and the US emerging as top gas providers in 2023
An EU joint tendering platform for gas contracts designed to help the continent stand without Russia was three times oversubscribed, attracting a total volume of 97.4 billion cubic meters (bcm) from international suppliers, the EU executive announced today (28 February).
Gas contracting platform innovations
According to euronews the tender, carried out through AggregateEU, the matching platform launched in 2023 to ensure sufficient energy supply for the winter 2023-2024, started on February 15 and closed last night. The platform was created to aggregate EU gas company demand and attract supplies from international contractors.
This year the matching platform pioneered a new concept allowing companies to bid for gas deliveries between April 2024 and October 2029. Buyers were able to submit gas demands for multiple six-month periods, up to a maximum of five years, the commission said. These tenders were designed to support industrial consumers and sellers in identifying buyers who might be interested in a longer trading partnership.
As per energy.ec.europa.eu Executive Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, said:
‘Today is another positive milestone for the work of the EU Energy Platform. Through coordination and cooperation, we are boosting Europe’s energy security in the face of a challenging geopolitical context. The bids surpass the collective demand – in fact they are almost 3 times the level! This is a remarkable outcome. It proves once again that AggregateEU has become a dynamic marketplace for buyers and reliable international suppliers of gas, and that it supports the competitiveness of our industry and keeps prices stable for our consumers.’
Continued operation of aggregate EU Scheme
Furthermore, as per euractiv.com the AggregateEU scheme will continue to operate past the energy crisis on a voluntary basis – independent of this, a small share of gas stored in Europe has to be purchased via the mechanism.
Gas undertakings in the EU and those “established in Energy Community countries [located in the Western Balkans] may participate in the mechanism as purchasers, while supplies from Russia or Belarus are excluded,” EU countries said in December 2023.
According to euronews.com the deals still need to be contracted among the bidding companies. The European companies will now negotiate the terms with the suppliers and decide if they want to take up the offers.
No details of the origin of the supplying offers were revealed and a commission spokesperson told Euronews that “most of this is confidential”.with Norway providing almost 30% of all gas imports, according to EU data. Additional suppliers included North African countries (41bcm), the UK (16.6bcm) and Qatar
Norway (87.8bcm) and the US (56.2bcm) were the EU’s top suppliers of gas in 2023, (15.5bcm).
The EU “has proved resilient” in defying “the great decoupling from Russian gas” due largely to “the EU internal market and the spirit of solidarity among EU countries”, said Simone Tagliapietra, senior fellow at think tank Bruegel.
