Spot trading in natural gas on European Energy Exchange AG (EEX) has reached a new record level in January. The highest volume for any month so far since the launch of trading was sold on the Spot Market with a volume of 237,126 MWh (GUD and NCG market areas) (same period during the previous year: 70,080 MWh). More than 350 trades were concluded. The highest daily volume during this period amounted to 17,760 MWh (20 January 2009).
“This is a good beginning. EEX will intensively use the year 2009 to further develop liquidity on the natural gas market“, Oliver Maibaum, Managing Director Exchange at EEX, emphasises. “More and more companies use EEX as a trading platform for natural gas. In January, we licensed Munich City Utilities as the 60th trading participant for trading in natural gas on EEX.”
Currently, 53 trading participants are admitted to trading on the Spot Market and 46 trading participants are admitted to trading on the Derivatives Market.
EEX operates Spot and Derivatives Markets for energy and related products. With more than 200 trading participants from 19 countries it is the energy exchange in continental Europe which boasts the biggest number of trading participants and the highest turnover. Power, natural gas and CO2 emission rights are traded both short-term on the Spot Market and long-term on the Derivatives Market with a time horizon of up to six years into the future. Furthermore, EEX offers financially settled coal futures. Clearing of exchange and over-the-counter transactions (OTC clearing) is provided by European Commodity Clearing AG (ECC). ECC is the clearing house of EEX and its partner exchanges.