“These results exceed our expectations”. On Thursday 13 July, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, enthusiastically presented the results of the European Union’s second group purchase of gas to the press. This initiative, carried out via the Aggregate EU platform (see EUROPE 13169/5), aims to enable companies to buy gas jointly by pooling demand to ensure stable and affordable supplies on the European market.
The second call, launched just two and a half weeks ago (see EUROPE 13209/17), attracted total demand of almost 16 billion cubic metres of gas, 4 billion more than the first (see EUROPE 13179/4). “Together, the first two rounds alone doubled the objective set by the Council for the whole year”, said Šefčovič, before expressing his gratitude to the 25 bidders.
These international suppliers met aggregate demand by offering a total volume of 15.19 billion cubic metres of gas.
“We have matched the most attractive offers with customer demands and an overall volume of 11.98 billion cubic metres have been matched. Out of this volume, LNG [liquefied natural gas] accounts for 5.5 billion cubic metres and the remaining 6.4 billion cubic metres covers pipeline gas”, explained the Vice-President of the Commission, for whom these figures underline the importance of pooling demand.
This is why Maroš Šefčovič has called for this model to be extended beyond the next call, expected in September, to become a “regular rendez-vous” and to be extended to include renewable gases, hydrogen and strategic raw materials.
Mr Šefčovič announced that preliminary discussions with Member States and MEPs were already underway on this subject, and that a detailed report to promote the benefits of this system would be prepared for October. After the third call, two others will be launched before the end of the year.
Maroš Šefčovič’s speech: https://aeur.eu/f/81s (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)