Gazprom’s Gas Sales via its Electronic Sales Platform (ESP)

Gazprom has traditionally sold gas to its European customers under long-term, oil-indexed contracts. However, in recent years it has been forced to adapt to changing market rules in Europe and an increasingly competitive global gas market. As part of this adaptation, Gazprom launched its Electronic Sales Platform (ESP) on the 20th of September 2018. From this platform, Gazprom has been selling spot volumes to new and existing counterparties, for delivery to ten destinations in central and NW Europe.

This Energy Insight examines the volumetric and pricing outcomes of the first 9 months of trading on the exchange and attempts to draw some initial conclusions about the Gazprom strategy linked to it. Monthly sales volumes now exceed 1 bcm – the equivalent of 8% of Gazprom’s monthly long-term contract sales in Europe, and so are clearly non-negligible. Furthermore, the weighted average price of transactions on the ESP has been below the average price of Gazprom’s LTC sales to Europe since February 2019 and has been between the average hub prices at TTF-Gaspool (floor) and Austria-Slovakia VTPs (ceiling) since April 2019. As a result, it is clear that the new trading platform could be set to play a significant role in Gazprom’s export strategy to Europe and is worthy of increased analytical attention for anyone interested in the development of the European gas market and the role of Russian gas within it.

By: Jack Sharples , James Henderson