Anatomia unui faliment geopolitic by Vitalie Ciobanu

Countries, however, will only have a legal obligation to aggregate demand and will be entitled to reject the price offered by the supplier if it fails to match their expectations. Contracts will be actually negotiated outside of the mechanism, with a maximum duration of 12 months. The platform will be restricted to aggregation of demand and matching with suppliers. The stored gas is an essential backup to prevent #shortages and #blackouts when cold temperatures trigger spikes in demand.

In total, the bloc has the capacity to keep around 100 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas underground and a mandate to fill underground facilities by 90% before the start of next winter. Both #LNG and #pipelinegas will be up for grabs. Countries will be required to pool at least 15% of their #gasstorage obligations into an electronic platform, which will then match companies with international providers according to their needs. 'This naturally affects Europe's competitiveness and the cost of living for our citizens.' The #EuropeanCommission wants to gather all member states together in a common undertaking to buy gas and prevent competition from fueling prices further up. For instance, it is almost seven times higher than in the #UnitedStates,' said Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission Vice President tasked with steering the joint procurement. 'The price of gas in the #EU remains inflated. But unlike most of these measures, the collective purchases have yet to be rolled out and yield any tangible effect for households and companies. The scheme was approved in mid-December as part of a broader raft of #emergency measures to combat the energy crisis. The European Union is moving ahead with novel plans to buy #gas jointly in a bid to leverage the bloc's #purchasingpower and secure lower prices from international suppliers.Futures prices are sliding to arrest the swelling surplus by encouraging more consumption from #industry and #powergenerators and re-routing liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers to alternative markets in South and #EastAsia.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts predicts temperatures will be slightly colder than average for the seven days between March 6 and March 13, but after that warmer through the end of March. Europe’s consumption has been reduced through a combination of industrial closures, public information campaigns to reduce #energyuse, and milder than usual weather, coupled with brisk imports of #LNG. With #Europe rapidly nearing the end of the winter #heating season, there is increasing confidence the region will have a record volume of gas still in storage, resulting in downward pressure on futures prices.

Below, there is a short review on what happened this week on European #gasmarket.

Anatomia unui faliment geopolitic by Vitalie Ciobanu