Translated material
An experiment within an experiment
They will try to switch gas trading to a new mode
The Ministry of Industry and Energy yesterday summed up the first results of the “5+5” government experiment on gas trading on the Mezhregiongaz electronic platform. Since November 2006, gas trading between Gazprom and independent producers has been held three times at free prices. During this time, about 1 billion cubic meters of gas were sold. After hearing the report of the auction organizer, Mezhregiongaz, members of the site’s supervisory board approved the holding of auctions on February 1 with delivery over the next ten days.Until now, trading took place once a month with delivery within the next month. However, the order of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, by which the rights of the organizer were assigned to Mezhregiongaz, contained a clause stating that from February there should be three trading days every month, with delivery in ten days. That is, gas sold, for example, on February 1 will be shipped to the buyer from February 10 to 20. Energy workers lobbied for the increased frequency of operation of the site, as they need to smooth out peaks in electricity generation more quickly.
Bidding on Mezhregiongaz's proposal is planned to be organized in a trial mode for only one gas receiving point (Vyngapurovsky) and the only supply corridor (Urengoy-Chelyabinsk). According to Vremya Novostei, four independent suppliers and nine buyers received an offer to participate in the auction in the new format. Within two days, they must send official confirmation and their applications for the expected volumes of purchases or sales. According to the newspaper’s interlocutor, all regular players on the site who have the opportunity to work in the specified corridor will be able to participate in the auction. The corridor was chosen as the area where above-limit gas is most in demand by buyers. In other words, it was in these regions that the largest excesses of gas by energy companies occurred in December and January.
NOVATEK, Rosneft, Itera and Transnafta received invitations from Mezhregiongaz as sellers. Three subsidiaries of Mezhregiongaz (Bashkirgaz, Samararegiongaz and Chelyabinskregiongaz), as well as the Bashkir Generating Company, Surgut State District Power Plant, OGK-4, Volzhskaya TGC, Tatenergo and the trader Gazenergokompleks can act as consumers. .
According to Vyacheslav Kravchenko, director of the department of structural and tariff policy of natural monopolies of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, there were no significant complaints about the work of the organizer, contrary to fears. No specific decisions or recommendations were made, with the exception, as one of the meeting participants put it, of an “experiment within an experiment” to conduct the first ten-day auction. At the same time, an official of the Ministry of Industry and Energy admitted that a discussion took place between the participants regarding one of the main principles of the bidding - sales parity between Gazprom and independent suppliers. Let us recall that, according to the government decree on conducting the experiment, the monopolist has the right to sell “using exchange technologies” up to 5 billion cubic meters of gas at free prices, but no more than all independent companies combined in the same way sell.
As the Vremya Novostey newspaper wrote , in the balance sheet for 2007, 5 billion cubic meters of gas from Gazprom were declared for trading on the site and only 3.4 billion cubic meters from independent ones (of which about 1.5 billion were from NOVATEK, 1.4 billion - Rosneft and 500 million cubic meters for all others). Moreover, of this 500 million, almost a quarter has already been sold at auction. That is, Gazprom, by default, will not be able to implement the entire quota. In this regard, a discussion ensued at yesterday's meeting. According to Mr. Kravchenko, some independents advocated the abolition of parity, while others insisted on its strict implementation. Another participant said that during the conversation, a representative of Rosneft unexpectedly announced his company’s readiness to sell 2.4 billion cubic meters at the site and, in fact, remove the issue of parity of the declared volumes from the agenda. It was not possible to clarify yesterday where Rosneft can get the extra billion cubic meters.
Representatives of independent manufacturers comment on this topic very carefully. “The issue was not on the agenda, and the conversation was informal,” one of the companies told Vremya Novostei. “But the requirement of parity in this form is a behavioral restriction for market participants, and not very justified.” According to our interlocutor, Gazprom’s ability to set a monopoly price is limited, since sales volumes are small and do not concern the limited gas. As a result, it turns out that the concern is interested in the supply of large volumes of gas to independent companies, which means it can force them to do so. In any case, there are levers.
The representative of Mezhregiongaz claims that no one will force anyone. “We only insist on concluding agency agreements with suppliers for at least a quarter (by trading), and not doing this before each trading day,” he says. “We must have a guarantee that these volumes can be sold.” However, independents are in no hurry, because with the approach of spring and summer, when additional volumes of gas, as a rule, are not required, the attractiveness of the site may greatly decrease.