EU Will Launch The Gas Purchase Platform After Meeting With Algeria

The European Commission is preparing to launch the joint gas purchasing platform. On October 17, the first meeting of the advisory committee is scheduled to take place, which will bring together a maximum of 40 energy companies from the 27 Member States, the Western Balkans, Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia.

This first meeting will take place after the trip planned by the Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson , to Algeria on October 10 to assess the situation of gas supply to Europe after having visited countries such as Egypt and Azerbaijan to reinforce the guarantee of supply for this winter.

The visit to Algiers takes place in the middle of the negotiation process that Naturgy is maintaining on the prices that Spain will have to pay for Algerian gas and after the entry of gas from Algeria to Italy has been reinforced.

Simson’s intention is to know the opinion of the Algerian Government on the possibility of achieving better prices for the purchase of natural gas.

Algeria aspires to change the reference of gas price contracts from the Henry Hub to the TTF, a move that would mean a sharp rise in gas costs for Spain. Brussels, for its part, wants this index to stop being a reference for gas contracts and is studying various formulas to organize a synthetic index that could serve as an alternative.

Throughout these days, the Commission is also holding negotiations with Norway to try to fix long-term gas prices and prevent the countries that have gained a greater weight in the supply of gas to Europe from benefiting from the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Brussels has also launched a High Level Working Group
The Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, stated this past week in New York that his country is open to taking the step of imposing limits on gas prices to curb the European energy crisis.

Throughout this month, the Norwegian leader has held talks with the president of the European Commission, Úrsula von der Leyen, with the intention of being able to offer some type of discount on current prices.

Brussels has also launched a High Level Task Force which will consist of three units, headed by a Director and reporting to the newly appointed Deputy Director General, Matthew Baldwin, and Director General for Energy , Ditte Juul Jørgensen, under the supervision of the Energy Commissioner. The units of the Operational Group will deal with: global demand and international negotiations and relations with Member States.