European Commission Vice-President responsible for Inter-institutional Relations Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday that he was “Truly pleased to announce the positive reaction that we had from the market” on the first tender for joint gas purchasing.

“Reliable international suppliers have responded to our aggregated demand of some 11.6 billion cubic meters of gas with bids to supply a total volume of more than 13.4 billion cubic meters,” he told reporters in Brussels.

He thanked all 25 suppliers who have submitted their offers.

Sefcovic noted that an overall volume of 10.9 billion cubic meters have been matched and out of this volume, LNG represents more than 20 percent and the remaining almost 80 percent covers pipeline gas.

The bids cover 18 out of the 21 virtual trading points for pipeline gas and both virtual LNG points, north and south.

He noted that AggregateEU has become a new, dynamic marketplace for buyers and sellers of gas in Europe as we phase out Russian gas noting that more than 110 companies subscribed to the AggregateEU mechanism and more companies subscribe every day.

In the second half of June, we envisage to launch the second round of demand aggregation and tendering. And three more rounds will follow before the end of this year, he said.

Next week, Sefcovic said he would host a virtual Steering Board, composed of high-level representatives from Member States as well as Energy Community countries, where they will discuss these results and our way forward.

Source: Kuwait News Agency