Products may be traded:
Purchases and sales on the gas wholesale market in France result in the physical delivery of gas at two virtual Gas Trading Points (known in French by the acronym “PEG”), which are attached to the three balancing zones on the French transmission network:
TRS was created by the merger of PEG Sud and TIGF on 1 April 2015, to improve the operation of the gas market in southern France and promote its development.
TRS represents a crucial step towards the creation of a single trading area in November 2018, Trading Region France (TRF), when TRS merges with PEG Nord.
Trading Region France (TRF) will form a single entry/exit zone, divided into two balancing zones: TIGF and GRTgaz. All purchases and sales of gas for the whole of TRF will be concentrated at a single virtual gas trading point, PEG.
Two types of products are traded on the natural gas markets: spot products and futures.
Spot products allow shippers to balance and optimise their portfolio in the short-term. They include:
These products are traded between market participants by means of daily nominations at the Gas Trading Points.
To minimise the risks inherent to spot trades, market participants sign contracts to buy and sell gas to be supplied in future months, quarters, seasons or years, at a firm price negotiated on the contract date.
To make trading easier, these forward contracts or futures apply to standardised products, for example, the supply of 1 MWh for each gas day during the delivery period.
Futures represent the average of the expected spot prices over a longer period, making them generally less volatile than spot products. They are used as a basis for determining the prices paid by end consumers. When suppliers enter into contracts with customers, they generally purchase the forward products needed to cover most of the gas they will need to supply.
CRE regularly publishes analyses of developments in the electricity, gas and CO2 wholesale markets, in its Annual Report on the functioning of the wholesale markets, and its quarterly observations on the electricity and gas markets.