The partners want to pool medium-sized industrial gas consumers with a consumption of at least 50 GWh/a each. The aim is to aggregate around ten TWh of annual gas demand. The consultant wants to organise this pool and put the necessary services for handling the supply out to tender.
Corresponding service providers are registered with AggregateEU as central buyers. "We expect direct LNG procurement to offer significant price advantages compared to procurement at THE VTP," ecotec managing director Markus Schnier emphasised to energate. He justifies this with the 'LNG glut' expected from 2027 due to the large number of new LNG projects.
In October of this year, the second round of ist medium-term tender will take place on the AggregateEU capacity platform. As part of the tender, seasonal products from 2025 to 2029 can be requested on the platform. The minimum volume per product is 30 GWh for a delivery to a pipeline hub and 1,800 GWh for an LNG delivery. Both are possible within the scope of the tenders. Delivery points are twenty-six pipeline-bound transfer points and two virtual LNG transfer points. The Prisma capacity trading platform will announce further details on the timetable and the exact tender conditions. The tender is aimed in particular at industrial companies. In a press release, Prisma writes that companies in the south-eastern and central European member states of the EU in particular could benefit from the tender. This is also where options for procurement diversification are most urgently needed.
No deals have been announced
Gas suppliers can submit indicative bids via the platform. Customers receive these offers if they match their enquiry. Basically, these are purely expressions of interest. All further negotiations and possible contracts take place outside the platform. In the first medium-term tender, seventeen suppliers offered a total of 97.4 billion cubic metres. This significantly exceeded the demand of 34 billion cubic metres. It is not known whether any contracts have been concluded. According to market participants, hardly any deals were concluded in the short-term tenders organised by Aggregate EU 2023.
ecotec also sees the tenders as opening up new procurement options for German companies, particularly for products with longer lead times or through LNG procurement. The consultancy firm took part in the first medium-term tender for one of its clients. On the basis of the indicative offers, ecotec finalised the delivery conditions and timeframes with the customer: "We will launch the binding tender at the beginning of September and also include the suppliers with whom we have contact via AggregateEU," Schnier told energate.