Introducing Trading Hub Europe: THE

    Germany to become one of the most liquid gas markets in Europe

    Trading Hub Europe (THE) came about through the merger of the former market area managers GASPOOL Balancing Services GmbH and NetConnect Germany.

    THE’s main areas of business include balancing group management, operation of the Virtual Trading Points, and system balancing.

    EEX Group, supporting the German gas market merger

    A close collaboration with market participants

    Since 2017, and the decision to merge the two German gas markets, GASPOOL (GPL) and NetConnect Germany (NCG), EEX has been committed to support the German gas infrastructure providers, regulatory bodies and market participants in order to design a new robust and liquid nationwide gas market for Germany.

    EEX has previously supported the merger of the French hubs TRS and PEG Nord into the common market area PEG, which boosted liquidity in the newly created nationwide French market

    After a close consultation with market participants, EEX decided to enable the trading of Trading Hub Europe (THE) Futures within the existing NCG order books until end of September 2021. Since 1 October 2021, the NCG order markets at VTP have been renamed “THE” to continue Spot and Futures trading for the Trading Hub Europe market area. All trades executed on NCG to be delivered after the merger date are automatically delivered into THE.

    Shaping the Future of the European gas market

    Dr Tobias Paulun, Chief Strategy Officer at EEX
     

    “With Trading Hub Europe, EEX is continuing to shape the future of the European gas market. From our experience with former gas market merger, we know that the synchronization of efforts with all market participants is crucial to ensure that the entire market is aligned and that no split of liquidity is encountered. I am confident our common work will make THE become one of the most attractive and liquid gas trading hubs in Europe".

    New opportunities for EEX members

    Trading THE products on EEX

    Admission process

    No, EEX transfers the membership automatically. Trading Participants admitted for trading in GPL or NCG will remain admitted for the new market area THE. EEX and ECC will use the Balancing Codes provided by THE as well as the current admission status of each Trading Participant to establish the trading setups as of 1 October 2021. 
    For more details, please refer to the table below.

    EEX Trading Participants ECC Clearing Member ECC Non-Clearing Member New member at EEX

    Already admitted Trading Participants for GPL and/or NCG will remain admitted for the German gas market area THE, without any actions required on members' side.

     

    The clearing licence for Clearing Members already covers the clearing of the renamed or new EEX THE Natural Gas products after the market area merger.

     

    All Non-Clearing Members currently admitted will remain admitted for the German gas market area THE, without any actions required on members' side. The automated transfer is implied until further notice.
    All members currently admitted for NCG-H/GPL-H Gas as well as NCG-L/GPL-L Gas will automatically get assigned with the new products.
    In case there are two existing balancing agreements, one for GPL and one for NCG, ECC will use then current NCG balancing agreement by default, once this balancing account will be renamed and continued as THE balancing account.

     

    Member must request admission to EEX gas market THE

     

    No, the current NCG and GPL contracts foresee already now fulfilment in THE. For technical reasons, the Open Interest in GPL and NCG contracts will be combined on Trading Day 29 September 2021. This will be done automatically and free of charge by our CCP ECC AG.
    For more details, please refer the EEX contract specifications.

    No, the merger of GPL and NCG will not change the prices of EEX nor ECC. 

    For more details, refer to

     

    Trading Participants will have to set up the new zonal EEX THE Natural Gas Spot Products into their Energy Trading and Risk Management software before end of September 2021.

    • Users of the EEX Direct screen, Joule Direct and Gold Mapping clients of Trayport will get the new zonal products of THE automatically delivered in their workbooks in the production environment from 31 July 2021.
    • Non-Gold mapping clients can contact Trayport for information and assistance during the configuration and mapping process.

    Please click here


    Downloads section
    Publishing date Title File
    2021-09-17 ECC Clearing Circular 36/2021 | Launch Information related to the German Gas Markets Merger on 1 October 2021 pdf (216 KB)
    2021-09-17 EEX Gas Customer Information - Launch Information related to the German Gas Markets Merger on 1 October 2021 pdf (143 KB)
    2021-09-08 Implementation guide section 25 pdf (715 KB)
    2021-06-14 Clearing Circular 22/2021 | Third Information Package related to German Gas Market Merger on 1 October 2021 pdf (283 KB)
    2021-06-14 EEX Customer Information - Third Information Package related to the German Gas Market Merger on 1 October 2021 pdf (245 KB)
    2021-06-10 EEX trader workshop THE June 2021 pdf (394 KB)
    2021-03-24 EEX Customer Information - Further Information related to the German Gas Market Merger on 1 October 2021 pdf (187 KB)
    2020-09-17 EEX Customer Information - Tradability of THE German Gas Markets Merger pdf (28 KB)
    2020-09-17 EEX Press Release - EEX to enable trading for new German Gas market THE within existing NCG products pdf (98 KB)
    2020-06-18 EEX trader workshop THE - Final presentation June 2020 English version pdf (421 KB)