The trading volume of all the products traded on the Iberian Gas Market platform managed by MIBGAS reached 56.1 TWh in 2019, an increase of 113% compared to the one registered in 2018, which was 26.3 TWh. MIBGAS has doubled again the volumen, which evidences the path started four years ago in terms of increased negotiation.

Natural gas is positioning itself as an energy vector of great importance that, year after year, increases its figures, not only in the negotiation in the Iberian Gas Market, but also in other significant quantities such as the demand for natural gas in Spain which, in 2019, according to provisional data published by Enagás (Spanish TSO), has been 398 TWh, the highest figure since 2010.

Throughout its short history, MIBGAS has been growing both in negotiated volume and agents, and has established itself as an emerging hub within the European gas market, while consolidating itself as the price reference in the Iberian Peninsula. In addition to the management of the organized gas market for short-term products (spot, prompt), futures and LNG (the latter two through of its subsidiary company MIBGAS Derivatives), MIBGAS is also responsible for the guarantee management of the Spanish gas system.

The Iberian Gas Market currently has 106 agents, national and international companies, who rely on the MIBGAS platform to make part of their purchases and sales of natural gas. The increase in market participants has also been exponential since its inception in December 2015.

MIBGAS, as regulated gas market, manages the negotiation of natural gas products that range from within-day to month-ahead (M + 1). During 2019, the sum of all these products involved a negotiation of 48.2 TWh, with the rest of the volume concentrated in the unregulated organized gas market (future products ranging from M+2 to the calendar Y+2), whose negotiation in MIBGAS Derivatives reached 7.8 TWh. In this market segment, product compensation is done through a clearing house, in this case OMIClear, with which MIBGAS maintains a collaboration agreement.

The products with the highest negotiated volume in 2019 were: within-day product with 16.5 TWh (compared to 9.4 in 2018), day-ahead product (D + 1) with 12.7 TWh (5.8 in 2018), and month-ahead (M + 1) with 9.2 TWh (6.3 in 2018).

The price of D+1 product in 2019 have moved in a range between 11.96 €/MWh on average in December and 24.81 €/MWh in January. In fact, in the last two months of last year, MIBGAS prices were the most competitive in Europe and were in clear correlation with other European markets, a trend that began to be noticed since early this year.

In addition, MIBGAS prices - the lowest in November and December in Europe - established the reference MIBGAS price in Spain below the Dutch TTF market, which is used as a benchmark for European prices.

In short, the Iberian Gas Market is already a price reference for both consumers and gas companies that offer contracts indexed to MIBGAS, and for international reporting agencies, some of which are already show MIBGAS prices in real time.

2019 has been the year in which liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been started trading -spot products: within-day and day-ahead - in MIBGAS Derivatives, a pioneering initiative worldwide as it is the first time that an organized market offers this type of LNG products in the 6 regasification plants in Spain, until now there was only bilateral negotiation (OTC market).

Likewise, other service offered by MIBGAS Derivatives is OTC operations register, also launched last year, in collaboration with OMIClear.

Among the future challenges of MIBGAS is to continue increasing its liquidity and promoting the use of its platform in natural gas purchases and sales, as well as the beginning of operation in Portugal. In this regard, MIBGAS maintains continuous meetings with the Portuguese energy regulator (ERSE), as well as with the Spanish (Enagás) and Portuguese (REN) technical system operators, to advance in the start-up of trading in Portugal along this year.

Finally, 2020 will be the year in which MIBGAS will extend its LNG trading services to the new Virtual Balance Tank according to the new balance regulation in regasification plants carried out by the CNMC. In this way, MIBGAS has before it the challenge of internationally forming a LNG hub with transparent and real prices.