Asia Gas Hub to launch region’s first digital gas trading platform before June-end
KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 — Energy market solutions provider Asia Gas Hub (AGH) has set its sights on launching the first phase of its natural gas exchange — named GasX — before the international energy conference Energy Asia begins on June 26.
AGH chief executive officer Faris Mustaffa said that at launch, GasX is expected to be used by at least 17 local natural gas players that have import and shipping licences for the commodity.
“We’ve engaged and held workshops with stakeholders from across the value chain, from authorities to producers, shippers, and importers; and we’ve been getting a very positive response.
“Everyone, including several major players that we met, is looking forward to playing their part in developing the Malaysia gas market and to making it more efficient,” he told Malay Mail in an interview.
The plan for the digitalised marketplace was first announced in June last year, after AGH signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) in relation to technology development for the digital marketplace.
Prior to that, AGH signed a MoU with Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Berhad to study the feasibility of establishing natural gas futures contracts that could be traded on an exchange.
Since then, in February this year, AGH began publishing a weekly newsletter with news, assessments and data on the local and international gas markets.
It is also working on corporate training programmes for the same purpose.
“Gas X allows for more transparent, efficient and active gas trading in Malaysia, attracting a bigger pool of players, helping the market to reach its higher potential to become the region’s benchmark,” Faris said.
He reiterated that as Malaysia moves away from coal power plants, there is a large potential for the country to build more gas-fired power plants — boosting the market size and opportunity for local natural gas trading.
Furthermore, he said that with neighbouring countries also working on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, Malaysia is ready to capitalise on its "abundant gas resources, sizeable market and complete gas infrastructure” to play a central role in gas trade for the region.
