EFET: First joint gas purchase for the EU showed that the market works well

The first joint purchase of natural gas for companies in EU member states and Energy Community contracting parties (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine) showed that the natural gas market is working well. Doug Wood, chair of the gas committee at the European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET), told the Argus news service during the ETCSEE conference in Vienna.

Joint purchases of natural gas through the AggregateEU platform are one of the outcomes of the Czech presidency of the Council of the EU. The aim of the measure is to ensure sufficient natural gas supplies for the coming winter and avoid significant price fluctuations in the natural gas market.

Information EFET received from its members who took part in the first joint gas purchase indicates that they were mostly matched with counterparties they are used to trading with. According to Wood, it remains to be assessed whether any trades were made through the platform that would otherwise not have been possible.