European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic on Tuesday announced the successful outcome of the first-ever international tender for joint purchasing of EU gas supplies.

The EU managed to attract bids from 25 supplying companies equivalent to more than 13.4 billion cubic meters of gas (bcm), surpassing the 11.6 bcm of joint demand that EU companies submitted through the recently established AggregateEU mechanism.

The international suppliers have already been matched with the European customers on AggregateEU by service provider PRISMA, amounting to an overall volume of 10.9 bcm. This covers 8.7 bcm of gas via pipeline and 2.2 bcm of LNG, the Commission said.

EU companies will now be able to negotiate the terms of the supply contracts directly with the supplying companies, with no involvement of the Commission.

“This is a remarkable success for an instrument that did not exist some five months ago. The Commission has played its role as aggregator and matchmaker, and now it is for the respective parties to conclude their agreements. It is a win-win for all parties,” Sefcovic said.

This exercise will support the EU countries’ efforts to meet their gas storage obligations for next winter, while strengthening our collective energy security at competitive prices. Further tenders will follow every two months until the end of year. The next tendering round is expected to be launched in the second half of June, the Commission said.

Demand aggregation and joint purchasing is a flagship initiative under the EU Energy Platform, which was created to work on the diversification of EU gas supplies after Russia invaded Ukraine and Europe collectively decided to end its dependence on Russian fossil fuel imports.

EU member states have undertaken to participate in the aggregation of demand for at least 15% of their national gas storage targets, which is equivalent to about 13.5 billion cubic metres of gas annually.