European Energy Exchange AG (EEX) and Powernext SA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to combine their natural gas market activities and pool their respective expertise to create a pan-European gas market. This project is subject to the customary regulatory and competition approvals.
In order to facilitate natural gas trading EEX and Powernext will offer the market participants all gas products on a joint Trayport platform as it meets the requirements of the gas trading community and has already been used by Powernext since 2004. In the framework of their cooperation, EEX and Powernext will remain two separate gas exchanges and will not create a joint venture.
As a result of the integration of the products within one system, joint spread products will be offered for trading: NCG/TTF, PEG Nord/TTF, GASPOOL/NCG, PEG Sud/PEG Nord, GASPOOL/TTF and PEG Nord/NCG. Clearing and settlement of all transactions will be provided by Europe’s leading energy clearing house, European Commodity Clearing AG (ECC).
In the future, EEX and Powernext are planning to launch other European gas products together on the joint trading platform. “Our aim is to deliver a unique pan-European gas offering focused on the physical and financial needs of the trading community”, explains Peter Reitz, Chief Executive Officer of EEX.
“We are building on our long-standing and successful cooperation in power trading. This is a very logical step for both our organisations. Moreover, we believe that, together, we have a convincing proposal for the participants in the gas sector”,
emphasises Jean-François Conil-Lacoste, CEO of Powernext. In addition, the offer of EEX and Powernext will benefit the integration of the European gas markets through the introduction of cleared geographical spread products.
Elliott Piggott, CEO of Trayport, comments: “We are extremely pleased that EEX and Powernext have selected our proven trading platform for this challenging initiative. The Trayport team will provide the highest level of support to make this cooperation a success“.
In July 2007, EEX launched exchange trading in natural gas in Germany. EEX operates Spot and Derivatives markets for the German GASPOOL and NetConnect Germany (NCG) market areas. The product portfolio also includes a Spot Market for the Dutch TTF market area. In addition, trading participants can use the ECC clearing services for OTC derivatives transactions concluded in the UK NBP market area.
In November 2008, Powernext launched trading in natural gas in France. The Powernext products cover the virtual trading points (Points d'Echange de Gaz) PEG North, South and TIGF. Moreover, Powernext has also offered physically cleared spread products between these market areas since May 2011.
On 26 October 2012, Powernext obtained a designation as a gas exchange from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation and is planning to launch a futures and OTC Clearing service on the Dutch TTF hub in January 2013 with the support of GDF SUEZ Trading as a quotation provider.
Depending on the due completion of the relevant regulatory and competition requirements, the EEX and Powernext gas cooperation should go live in the first quarter of 2013. More details will be provided later on.