PEGAS, the pan-European gas trading platform operated by Powernext, recorded its best annual traded volume to date with a total of 1,024.8 TWh traded in 2015. This accounts for an increase of 81% compared to 2014 (567.2 TWh). This upsurge was achieved across all PEGAS market segments.
Since 1 January 2015, all gas markets of EEX Group are operated by Powernext on the PEGAS platform. At the same time, EEX became the majority shareholder of Powernext. With this step, the access to all natural gas products available on PEGAS was facilitated with all major European gas hubs being offered on one platform through one membership.
Dr. Egbert Laege, CEO of Powernext, comments: “2015 was a crucial step for the development of PEGAS. We crossed the 1,000 TWh threshold for the first time while extending our offer to our 177 members. With their support, PEGAS’ aspiration of becoming the pan-European gas platform of choice can be achieved, as long as we continue to focus on satisfying our client’s ambitions. This trust enables us to continue our development, with the introduction of new markets and additional products in 2016.”
Spot Markets
Overall spot trading volumes in 2015 rose to 440.6 TWh, which represents a growth of 52% compared to 2014 (289.7 TWh).
In particular, the markets for the Netherlands, Germany and France and contributed to this development. The Dutch TTF market recorded a volume of 123.9 TWh, up 84% compared to the previous year (67.2 TWh). The German NCG and GASPOOL delivery areas registered 194.9 TWh, up 51% from 2014 (129.2 TWh), including 56.8 TWh of quality specific gas products. The volume traded on the French hubs reached 116.7 TWh, which represents a 26% year-on-year increase (92.9 TWh). In addition, the Belgian ZTP delivery zone totalled 5.0 TWh in 2015, up more than ten times the volumes traded in 2014 on this specific hub (437,681 MWh).
In 2015, PEGAS successfully introduced trading for new markets and products on the spot market which contributed to the overall increase: On 17 April, physically settled Spot and Futures contracts were launched on the Belgian Zeebrugge Beach (ZEE) gas hub. The launch of spot and futures products for the UK’s NBP gas hub followed on 26 March. Additionally, locational spot products were introduced on the GASPOOL and GRTgaz delivery zones on 17 November, supporting the physical balancing of French Transmission System Operators (TSO) and German Market Area Managers (MAM).
In 2015, spread transactions on all PEGAS spot markets amounted to 57.0 TWh.
Derivatives Markets
PEGAS derivatives market volumes rose to 584.2 TWh which represents an increase of 111% compared to the volume traded in 2014 (277.5 TWh).
The Dutch TTF futures market accounted for almost three quarters of the total volume with 428.9 TWh, a growth of 186% in comparison with the previous year (150.2 TWh). The German NCG and GASPOOL delivery areas registered a volume of 96.7 TWh up 14% from the previous period (85.2 TWh). Trading volumes on both French PEG Nord and TRS market areas reached 50.7 TWh in 2015 up 20% from 2014 (42.1 TWh).
In addition to this, a number of new products launched on the derivatives market contributed to the high overall result: On 26 March, physical futures for the NBP and financial futures for the PSV market areas were launched. Physical futures for PSV followed on 18 September. On 17 April, products for the Belgian ZEE market area were launched. The futures segments for NBP and ZEE totalled 1.1 TWh as of 31 December, while 6.8 TWh were traded on the PSV delivery zone.
On 19 March, Straight-Through Processing (STP) was launched, with which the registration of OTC transactions (Trade Registration) can be conducted by brokers with less manual interaction and operational risk compared to the manual process. In the course of 2015, the volume from Trade Registration reached 34.4 TWh which includes 20.5 TWh registered for clearing through the new STP service.
Details on the natural gas results are available in the enclosed report.
