Russian gas sales on Gazprom Export's ESP hit record daily high

London — Russian gas sales on Gazprom Export's Electronic Sales Platform (ESP) hit a new daily record high on Thursday, with a total of 477 million cu m of gas sold.

Sales on the ESP have soared since the start of 2020 as Gazprom looks to offer out significant volumes to make up for the small sales in December, which were affected by uncertainty over the future of Russian gas transit via Ukraine.

Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz signed a new five-year Ukrainian gas transit agreement on December 30, easing concerns of significant disruption to flows, with the Russian company agreeing to transit 65 Bcm via Ukraine in 2020.

The ESP sales Thursday were the highest since July 10, 2019, when Gazprom Export sold 406 million cu m.

Sales have averaged 225 million cu m/d so far in January, easily the highest monthly average since the ESP started operations in September 2018.

The previous monthly high was an average of 121 million cu m/d in July last year.

Total volumes sold so far this year are already 1.35 Bcm -- almost double the total sales in December of 789 million cu m.

According to S&P Global Platts Analytics, ESP sales are expected to stay high as Gazprom continues to ramp up flows via Velke Kapusany, as prices remain well above short-run marginal costs and flows remain below the average needed to meet the 65 Bcm of capacity booked through Ukraine.

THURSDAY SALES

Thursday's auction was dominated by 240 million cu m sold for delivery to the German Gaspool hub.

Large volumes were also sold for delivery to the TTF hub (82 million cu m) and the German NCG hub (73 million cu m).

Sales were also made for delivery to:

**the Arnoldstein interconnection point between Austria and Italy;

**the Olbernhau interconnection point between Germany and the Czech Republic;

**the Austrian virtual trading point;

**the Slovakian VTP;

**the Austrian hub at Baumgarten;

**and the Beregovo interconnection point between Ukraine and Hungary.

Gazprom Export launched the ESP to sell gas outside of its traditional long-term contract model in September 2018 and has gradually increased the number of delivery points and timeframes.

In all, gas sales on the ESP now total 17.85 Bcm since the first sale took place.

Gazprom Export's ESP sales in January (mil cu m)

* Within-day, day-ahead, weekend, balance-of-month; ** Month-ahead, two months-ahead, three-months ahead, quarters ahead, seasons ahead

Source: Gazprom Export

-- Stuart Elliott, Stuart.Elliott@spglobal.com

-- Edited by James Leech, newsdesk@spglobal.com