Monday, April 4, 2022

“CEGH GreenGas Platform” for Trading and Marketing of Biogas and Hydrogen

• Central European Gas Hub AG (CEGH), a fully consolidated company of OMV Group, launches the CEGH GreenGas Platform for the marketing of Green Gases, such as biogas and hydrogen, in Austria.

• Gradual expansion to Central – and Eastern Europe envisaged.

• For a start, this platform will enable trading of biogas. As soon as green hydrogen becomes available for trade, this will also be included in the CEGH GreenGas Platform.

Green Gases such as biogas and green hydrogen will make a significant contribution to the decarbonization of the energy system. With Green Gases, the existing gas infrastructure can be used for sustainable energy supply. Around 0.1 TWh of biomethane – processed biogas – are currently being fed into the natural gas network in Austria. By 2030, 5 TWh of Green Gases should be available. For Green Gases to make an effective contribution to decarbonization, a functioning trading place must be established in Austria.

CEGH, a company of OMV, Wiener Boerse AG (Vienna Stock Exchange) and the Slovakian gas grid operator Eustream a.s., is the largest gas trading place in Central and Eastern Europe with a total trading volume of 749 TWh in 2021 – nine times Austria’s annual gas consumption. The CEGH GreenGas Platform will be the first platform to support the decarbonization of the gas markets by trading of Green Gases. As part of the OMV Group, CEGH is thus making an important contribution towards the sustainability of the energy system in line with the new OMV strategy.

Johann Pleininger, Deputy CEO and Member of the Executive Board of OMV AG: “With the new Strategy 2030, OMV demonstrates a strong commitment to the transformation and decarbonization of the energy system and has presented a clear plan for this. The CEGH GreenGas Platform is the right step towards a pioneering future for the gas industry. In addition to the diversification of natural gas sources, green gases are absolutely important for security of supply in Austria.”

Erich Holzer, Chairman of the CEGH Supervisory Board and Vice President of the OMV Value Center Gas: “The CEGH GreenGas Platform is an important strategic step to promote and enable a future decarbonized energy system. CEGH is positioning itself as the energy trading place of the future. As OMV Group, we will continue to drive and expand this initiative as part of the new OMV strategy.”

Gottfried Steiner, CEGH CEO: “With the CEGH GreenGas Platform, we will enable trading in Green Gases for the first time. Currently, there is neither functioning trading of these products nor a platform for it available. To achieve the ambitious expansion goals, transparency and liquidity on a trading platform are key requirements. We aim to actively support this and see ourselves as the ideal partner to the industry and energy suppliers in the expansion of Green Gases.”

The CEGH GreenGas Platform will be a marketplace for biogas supply and demand as well as for green hydrogen, once green hydrogen becomes available on the market.

The platform enables purchase or sale of biomethane guarantees of origin (GOs) as well as of biomethane with or without GOs. In addition to a bulletin board, also auctions will be available. This means that for the first-time suppliers and buyers can interact on a common marketplace, which will greatly simplify trade conclusion and processing.

The CEGH GreenGas Platform will gradually be expanded to include trading in Green Gases in other Central- and Eastern European countries, so that international and cross-border trading can develop.

To achieve the European climate targets, a liquid European exchange for Green Gases is necessary in the long term. CEGH supports its existing cooperation partner EEX, which is the largest European energy exchange, to realize the vision of liquid exchange trading of Green Gases and GOs on EEX.

The CEGH GreenGas Platform is set up in two languages, German and English, and is free of charge. It can be accessed under the following link: www.cegh.at/greengas/.