ENGIE España S.L.U. has been appointed voluntary market maker in the MIBGAS electronic trading platform for the first semester of 2018, as specified in the Resolutioin of the Department for Energy Policy and Mines that awarded the service. ENGIE will start to execute its market making functions on January 1st, 2018, in the continuous trading session.

The goal of the voluntary market maker is to feed the natural gas market with liquidity through the continous presence of purchase and sale offers on the platform’s screen. The market making function exists in most energy exchanges in Europe. ENGIE España S.L.U. was one of the first companies to become an agent in the Organized Market for Gas, in December 2015. ENGIE will take over the voluntary market making functions from AXPO Iberia, who acted as liquidity provider in the second half of 2017.

The role of voluntary market maker is defined in article 20 of Royal Decree 984/2015, of 30 October, which regulates the Organized Market for Gas and third-party access to natural gas infrastructures. The award procedure was set out in clause 4 of the Resolution of 6 June 2016 of the State Secretary of Energy, which approved several regulations related to the Organized Market for Gas.

The procedure for appointing a voluntary market maker starts with a public call for candidates and a tentative schedule for the tender process, which can be found in the web page of MIBGAS (www.mibgas.es). Once interested companies have sent the requested information and it has been thoroughly analysed, MIBGAS submits a report with a proposed appointment to the Spanish Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda. The Ministry of Energy, prior to approving the appointment, must take into account a report prepared by the energy regulator, National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC). The process is completed with the publication of a Resolution of the Spanish State Secretary of Energy.

ENGIE (www.engie.es), a leading group in the energy transition, has broad multisectoral experience in offering energy efficiency services (from the creation and design of client-specific energy efficiency solutions and installations, to operation and maintenance services), in addition to a strong position in the value chain in the natural gas and renewables sectors and a consolidated presence in the Spanish energy market, with 2,000 MW of natural gas-fuelled combined cycles and 86 MW of renewable energy (mini-hydro and photovoltaic). ENGIE’s experience is complemented with its offer of power and gas marketing services in the retail sector and tailor-made solutions for each client and each sector of activity.