(Bloomberg) -- The European Union’s planned temporary natural gas price cap hasn’t affected markets so far, according to the bloc’s energy regulator, clearing an obstacle to the mechanism’s implementation next month.
The Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators said that the agreement struck last month to cap extreme market prices coincided with a time when the cost of gas was already falling, according to the preliminary analysis published Monday. ACER is due to release a full report at the start of March.
“So far, ACER has not identified significant impacts (positive or negative) that could be unequivocally and directly attributed to the adoption of” the market correction mechanism, the regulator said. “However, this does not preclude any impact on financial and energy markets in the future.”
The findings come three weeks before the gas price cap is put in place. The measure is designed to prevent the kind of extreme price swings that battered the region last year.
The new cap requires several triggers before it can take effect: benchmark Dutch gas prices must be above €180 ($196) per megawatt-hour, and they also must be at least €35 greater than global liquefied natural gas prices. The bloc has also introduced other emergency measures, including plans to jointly purchase gas and cut demand.
Dutch gas futures for next month delivery traded at about €66.50 per megawatt-hour on Monday. Prices soared to as high as €345 last year.
The European Securities and Markets Authority, which also published its assessment of the cap due to start from Feb. 15, made similar findings.
Read more: EU’s Looming Gas Price Cap Could Trigger Abrupt Market Changes
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