I spoke to Energy Traders Europe's Mark Copley about some of the most important topics in the market right now, including the German storage levy and mandatory storage filling targets, among others. Read the full interview free here: https://lnkd.in/eEfkeQKe
Energy Traders Europe has called on the European Commission and energy regulators' association Acer to provide guidance on the legality of gas storage levies as soon as possible.
The association recently changed its name from European Federation of Energy Traders (Efet) to help people "immediately understand who we represent", its chief executive, Mark Copley, told Argus. At a time when "energy is more political than ever", it wants to be "more vocal in making the arguments that explain why trading helps customers across Europe", Copley said.
The commission and Acer have been reticent to provide a full opinion on the gas storage levy imposed by Germany and the one planned by Italy, and while Copley "knows that both are taking this seriously and working on it, public statements would be welcome", he said. The association's members have been "providing them with their views and experiences", but the "risk of contagion grows over time". But the association remains "hopeful that German authorities recognise that this will ultimately impose additional costs on German consumers and can propose new tariffs without a legal challenge", Copley said.
Storage levies "should not be charged on cross-border points at the expense of consumers in other member states", as this "creates uncertainty, fragments markets, increases price spreads between countries and goes against the spirit of energy solidarity", Copley said, echoing previous comments by the association. Attempts to recover the costs of strategic or national stocks should instead be carried out in a "non-discriminatory way via domestic network tariffs". The size of the levies perhaps reflects the "unintended consequences of developing policies too quickly", Copley said.
There has been a notable increase in new pipelines, interconnection capacity and LNG import capacity in central and eastern Europe over the past five years, but the "slowness of market reform in the region is preventing the use of that infrastructure efficiently", Copley said. The priority should be improving access terms rather than building more pipelines, he said, noting that there is "already huge south-to-north capacity in the Trans-Balkan pipeline that could be better used". There are "various worries" for association members, such as Turkey-Bulgaria capacity being tied up in the deal between state-owned incumbents Botas and Bulgartransgaz, and issues in Romania regarding centralised market obligations. These types of issues "chill the interest and usability of capacity", he said.
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