EU to seek 16 billion cubic meters in second joint gas-buying round

Brussels: Companies have registered demand for nearly 16 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas in the European Union’s second round of joint gas buying, EU Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said on Thursday.

The EU’s second joint gas buying tender, which will gather offers from global gas suppliers until Monday, will cover gas deliveries out to March 2025, Sefcovic said at a Bloomberg event in Brussels.

The EU launched joint gas buying to help fill storage caverns ahead of winter and combine EU countries’ market clout, rather than competing against one another in global markets to secure fuel to replace lost Russian gas supplies.

Despite initial scepticism from some industry sources over whether companies would use the scheme, the EU looks set to exceed its goal to jointly buy around 13.5 bcm of gas.

A first tender closed in May already racked up requests from companies to jointly buy 11.6 bcm.

The volumes are a sliver of the EU’s total demand of around 360 bcm, but aim to help countries prepare for another winter with scarce Russian gas, after Moscow cut off most gas flows to Europe following its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Sefcovic said companies had already signed some deals under the EU scheme, but declined to share details. The EU matches gas buyers and sellers, but is not involved in the commercial negotiations that follow between the companies to sign contracts.

Brussels is also considering making the joint gas buying programme permanent – and potentially expanding it in future to secure supplies of hydrogen or the critical raw materials needed to develop green technologies.