Powernext Reaches into Central, Eastern Europe

Austria’s and Germany’s competition authorities have approved the creation of a company to run a gas trading platform for central and eastern Europe. This is an area where competition has been slow to develop owing partly to the dominance of Gazprom and partly to a lack of political will.

Austrian Central European Gas Hub (CEGH) (49%) and Paris-based Powernext (51%) are setting up a company based in Vienna to ensure a local service for the Austrian market. Powernext owner, EEX, said August 4 that customers will benefit from access to the pan-European Pegas offering. Pegas is the central gas trading platform of EEX Group operated by Powernext.

As of the end of November, CEGH Gas Exchange spot and futures contracts will be operated on the Pegas platform under the Powernext rulebook and exchange licence. The agreement foresees the joint development of the Austrian as well as the central and eastern European gas markets

CEGH CEO Gottfried Steiner, who will run the new company, said traders would “substantially benefit from this cooperation, which will also enable spread trading to other European markets and further increase liquidity at the Austrian VTP.”

(credit: cegh.at)

Powernext CEO Egbert Laege described it as a “major step in the development of Pegas to become the one-stop-shop for European gas trading.” He said Pegas’ expansion into central and eastern Europe was a “key piece in our strategy to expand the geographical coverage of our offering.”

Powernext last month said the Danish Gaspoint Nordic would join the Pegas platform by the end of the year. After the completion of the cooperation with CEGH, Pegas will cover the markets of Austria, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands, UK, Belgium and Italy. 

This week Ascent Resources told NGE that its gas sales agreement with INA would be priced against CEGH. The gas is produced in Slovenia and transferred to INA at the Croatian border.

William Powell