EU to hold next round of joint gas buying in March

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will hold its next round of joint gas buying in March, seeking demand from buyers for the next five years to help Europe replace Russian fuel, gas capacity platform Prisma, which hosts the EU buying platform, said on Friday.

The EU launched a joint gas buying platform in 2023 to try to hand participants more leverage to achieve better deals after Russia slashed gas deliveries to Europe in 2022, driving European energy prices to record highs.

The scheme gathers demand from companies, then seeks offers from global gas suppliers, and matches buyers and sellers. Brussels is not involved in the commercial negotiations that follow between the companies to sign contracts.

Buyers can submit demand for gas or liquefied natural gas deliveries covering July 2025 to October 2030, Prisma said in a statement. Next month's round opens on March 12, and buyers and sellers will be matched by March 25, it said.

"Buyers and sellers can now indicate their preference to have the LNG delivered free-on-board, thus enabling the participation of more international suppliers," it added.

Contracts for LNG on a free-on-board (FOB) basis allow buyers to resell cargoes, creating more flexibility to redirect fuel to where demand is highest.

Next month's will be the final round before the joint buying platform - which was introduced during the energy crisis as a temporary measure - expires at the end of March.

The European Commission is working on a permanent scheme to replace it, and plans to launch joint buying for hydrogen in September, followed by critical minerals in the third quarter, and gas after that, EU sources told Reuters this month.

The EU scheme has gathered demand far exceeding the Commission's initial target of 13.5 billion cubic metres of gas - but because companies are not obliged to report if they go on to sign contracts, Brussels has little oversight of how much gas purchasing the platform has yielded.

That will change when the platform re-launches, with companies required to report deals in future, although the prices will not be included because they are deemed to be commercially sensitive, three EU sources told Reuters.

The joint buying scheme does not purchase Russian gas.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett, additional reporting by Marwa Rashad, editing by Susan Fenton)