On Thursday 19 January, the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) published its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) spot price assessment for the North West Europe (NWE) market area, at €56.77 per megawatt hour (MWh).
This area includes regasification terminals in Belgium, France (except the Fos Cavaou and Fos Tonkin terminals), Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain (Mugardos and Bilbao only).
Under the recent Council of the European Union Regulation (2022/2576) on gas solidarity, ACER has been tasked with providing a daily LNG price assessment since 13 January with a view to publishing a European benchmark for LNG by 31 March. Before Thursday, however, it lacked the data to calculate a single spot price for LNG (see EUROPE 13102/18).
This future index aims to provide the EU with an alternative to the Dutch TTF - the standard price indicator in the European gas markets. The European Commission believes that the TTF “is no longer an adequate reflection of market realities as it is unduly influenced by pipeline infrastructure bottlenecks in North-Western Europe and therefore Russian manipulation of natural gas supplies to the EU”. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)