The European Union will launch its second tender to buy natural gas on June 26 at 0900 CET (0700 GMT), the platform running the AggregateEU buy scheme said on Friday.

The demand collection window will be open until July 3 at 1800 CET (1600 GMT), the PRISMA platform’s statement said.

The EU began a joint gas buying scheme to help countries in the bloc to fill gas storage sites ahead of winter and avoid a repeat of the record energy prices and fears of potential energy shortages after Russia sharply reduced deliveries last year.

The first tender closed in May, resulting in matches between buyers and sellers for 10.9 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas.

“Our obligation was to aggregate demand to cover 15% of the gas storage in Europe, so 13.5 bcm. In the first round we got demand for 11.6 bcm so in the first round we almost matched the expectation for the year,” European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic said on Friday.

“There was also oversupply, we got offers of 18.7 bcm … that was quite remarkbale.”

The matchmaking is ongoing and the final negotiations between buyers and sellers will take place outside the platform, he added.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Julia Payne Editing by David Goodman)