Supply bids for natural gas in the EU’s second round of joint gas buying were slightly lower than demand, leading to a total matched volume of almost 12 billion cubic metres (bcm), EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said.

Sefcovic said demand in the tender had totaled almost 16 bcm, while international suppliers made bids for a total of 15.19 bcm.

“We have matched the most attractive offers with customer demands and an overall volume of 11.98 billion cubic metres has been matched,” Sefcovic told reporters.

“These results exceed our expectations.”

Of the total amount of gas purchased, 6.4 bcm related to pipeline gas and 5.5 bcm was liquefied natural gas (LNG), covering gas deliveries out to March 2025.

The European Union launched joint gas buying to help fill storage containers ahead of winter and boost EU countries’ ability to secure fuel to replace lost Russian gas supplies withoutcompeting against one another in global markets.

Sefcovic said a third round would be launched “after the summer break”.

A first tender, closed in May, received requests from companies to jointly buy 11.6 bcm, which was more than matched by supply bids.

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.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Bart Meijer; editing by Jason Neely and Sharon Singleton)