First gas purchase tender in EU Energy Platform's AggregateEU system set for May - Ukrainian ministry

MOSCOW. April 20 (Interfax) - The first tender in the information system of Europe's demand aggregation and joint gas purchasing mechanism AggregateEU, set up by the European Commission as part of the EU Energy Platform, will take place in May.

"We look forward to the active involvement of Ukrainian natural gas market players in this important EU initiative to ensure conditions for stable and reliable energy supplies during the next heating season," Ukrainian media quoted Ukraine's Energy Ministry as saying in a statement on Wednesday evening.

The operations of the AggregateEU mechanism are governed by Regulation (EU) 2022/2576, and the mechanism envisages creating an information system where businesses interested in purchasing natural gas can enter data on their demand for the next 12 months (starting from July 2023), and these applications will be subsequently matched with sale offers from natural gas sellers within monthly tenders, the ministry said.

"However, the submission of bids and offers is not binding, and both buyers and sellers may withdraw from the transaction at any time," it said.

At the same time, the European Commission expects that this mechanism will attract additional supply volumes from gas sellers from other countries, the ministry said.

The information system for the AggregateEU mechanism has already been created by PRISMA, a provider of IT services for energy markets. Registration is required in order to access the PRISMA system.

"Since the first tender will be held in May 2023, the European Commission recommends that interested participants register by mid-April 2023," the ministry said.