The EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) said it had published its first daily LNG reference price as part of the gas market correction mechanism.
ACER already launched its DES LNG spot price assessment as part of the EU’s plan to launch a new daily LNG benchmark by March 31.
This new daily LNG reference price follows the launch of EU’s gas market correction mechanism (MCM) in December to protect EU citizens and the economy against excessively high energy prices, ACER said in a statement on February 1.
According to ACER, its MCM reference price was at 55.21 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) on Wednesday.
To compare, the Dutch TTF for March closed at 59.50 EUR/MWh on Wednesday.
ACER said the MCM reference price is the average price of several LNG marker prices as assessed by different entities and the front-month National Balancing Point (NBP) derivative settlement price.
Also, the agency said that the MCM can only be activated as of February 15, 2023, if the front-month TTF derivative settlement price exceeds 180 EUR/MWh for three consecutive working days, and is at least 35 euros above the MCM reference price for the same period of time.
European LNG imports surged last year as European countries look to boost energy security and replace pipeline gas from Russia. Most of these volumes came from the US.
Due to high demand, European terminals such as the Dutch Gate LNG in Rotterdam, UK’s Grain LNG, and Greece’s Revithoussa terminal received record number of cargoes last year.
