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South-North Corridor GRIP 2017
3.4 Market Analysis
In the following section the Regional market developments have been analysed
reporting the trends of the national hubs in term of evolutions of traded volumes
between 2013 and 2015, first individually and later on aggregate scale.
The section is concluded with a price correlation survey extended to other main EU
hubs (TTF and NBP) where the main trends and possible explanations related to
evolution of prices among hubs and between gas and other energy commodities are
reported.
3.4.1 MARKET DEVELOPMENT
The gas hubs covered in this SNC GRIP have continued to experience growth in
traded volumes and number of transactions over the past years, despite an overall
decrease in the demand for gas. Furthermore, the region has also made great strides
in terms of increasing market integration and liquidity, thus becoming one of the
main drivers behind the implementation of the European Gas Target Model (GTM).
First developed at the 18th Madrid Forum in 2011, the January 2015 revised GTM
presents the regulators’ vision for a competitive and secure European gas market.
Means of achieving this goal include the development of liquid virtual trading points,
increased market integration, and diversification of upstream gas suppliers.
The following paragraphs show the trends of the South-North Corridor gas hubs.
3.4.1.1 Belgium and Luxembourg
The physical hub Zeebrugge Beach in Belgium is also one of the most mature hubs
on the continent. It serves as a gateway to Europe for gas coming in from Norway,
the United Kingdom, and LNG from the Zeebrugge LNG Terminal. As of the end of
2015, it has also been connected to the Dunkirk LNG terminal, commissioned in
2016 in France. The ZTP (the virtual Zeebrugge Trading Point) has continued to
grow since its inception in October 2012. In October 2015, ZTP became the gas
trading point for the new BeLux balancing zone, the integrated gas market for
Belgium and Luxembourg.
0
140
120
100
80
60
20
40
%
2013
2014
2015
% growth of traded volumes from 2013
Traded Volumes
Figure 3.24:
Growth of Zeebrugge Beach traded volumes from
2013 (Source: IHS Energy European gas hub
tracker)
0
300
250
200
150
100
50
%
2013
2014
2015
% growth of traded volumes from 2013
Traded Volumes
Figure 3.25:
Growth of ZTP traded volumes from 2013
(Source: Huberator.com)