BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 16. The European Commission (EC) published the first medium-term tender under the AggregateEU platform for joint gas procurement, allowing purchasers to apply for gas for many six-month periods from April 2024 through October 2029, Trend reports via the EC statement.
Following the short-term crises that Europe experienced in the
previous two winters, the EC introduced a new service to pick
buyers and sellers: the medium-term tender.
AggregateEU will collect energy consumer requests from the EU for
up to five years and then put them out to tender.
This would assure supply stability and predictability for
participating companies in the coming years, based on the EC's
crisis mechanism created in 2023.
Previously, the EC held four rounds of short-term tenders on the
AggregateEU platform for joint gas purchases (from April to
December 2023), which resulted in trustworthy providers meeting
more than 42 billion cubic meters of total European gas demand.
Short-term tenders will also continue later this year.
To participate in this first medium-term tender, buyers and sellers must register and subscribe to the AggregateEU platform, which has been operational since April 2023.
The application for the first round must be submitted by February 21, and the trading will take place on February 26–27.
Once demand and supply are coordinated through the platform, individual companies enter into contracts on a bilateral basis.
Commenting on the issue, an informed source said that potential gas sellers in such tenders under the EC, if there is excess gas, could include the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company (overseeing gas sales from Shah Deniz field) and SOCAR Trading.
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