Secretariat facilitates South East and East European Gas (SEEGAS) platform meeting

Yesterday, the Energy Community Secretariat launched the South East and East European Gas (SEEGAS) initiative. The energy exchanges BRM, UEEX, TGE, HEnEx, CEEGX and CEGH and gas trading companies such as Shell, ENGIE, OMV and Uniper together with transmission system operators from the region established a coordination platform during the kick-off meeting.

The SEEGAS initiative aims to coordinate activities and harmonise views and practices in relation to the development of a common and integrated gas market in the South East European and East European region. The initiative is open for participation to all stakeholders working on national gas hub creation, relevant pan-European stakeholders and experts from the national authorities in charge of regulating the energy and financial sectors in the countries from the SEEGAS region.

The first SEEGAS meeting was opened by Director Janez Kopač, who underlined the importance of cooperation between stakeholders and the positive externalities that an integrated gas market can bring. Aligned stakeholders on a regional level can avoid costly mistakes if interoperability is ensured from an early stage on. Presenting the SEEGAS initiative, Mr Gregor Weinzettel, Gas Expert at the Secretariat and the event’s moderator, emphasized the importance of collaboration between stakeholders and knowledge sharing in order to move towards integrated markets with fair price signals.

The Secretariat will further contact different stakeholders and collect all national experiences in gas market development in order to provide a green field market analysis of each participating country. The second high-level SEEGAS platform meeting is envisioned to take place on 15 March 2021.