E.ON Ruhrgas AG, a unit of German utility E.ON AG (EOA.XE), Tuesday said it will auction around 33 gigawatt-hours of long-term gas supply contracts May 7.
Successful bidders will receive transmission capacity, which can be booked with E.ON's gas transmission subsidiary E.ON Gastransport.
E.ON Ruhrgas, Germany's largest importer of natural gas, said the delivery point of the auctioned gas will be in Waidhaus, near the Czech border.
On its Web site, the company has published information on the conditions, rules of the auction and the envisaged timeframe of its 2008 gas release program, it said.
Potential buyers can register for the auction and a bidders conference will be held in Essen, where Ruhrgas is based, Mar. 14, the company said.
Ruhrgas said this will be the sixth auction of this kind after its takeover by E.ON in 2002. The takeover had initially been rejected by the Federal Cartel Office but was subsequently granted approval by the German government granted under certain conditions. Among other things, the government ordered E.ON Ruhrgas to sell a total of 200 gigawatt-hours of its long-term supply contracts in six separate auctions to smaller competitors to increase liquidity and foster competition on the gas market.