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gnifi cant changes. In our opinion, the most impor- to play a signifi cant role in Gazprom’s export stra-
tant of them was the adaptation to new rules and tegy and a new way to compete for market share
practices of the European gas markets, including a in Europe.
certain modernization of long-term contracts; the
creation of an electronic trading platform (based in Gazprom Export launched its
“Gazprom Export”) for short-term export trading;
and more active trading at the European spot mar- Electronic Sales Platform (ESP)
ket. “for natural gas sales from
Gazprom Export launched its Electronic Sales St. Petersburg in 2018, a very
Platform (ESP) for natural gas sales from St. Pe-
tersburg in 2018. Now the company gradually in- positive change for European
creases the traded volumes, the number of delivery consumers as now they can get
points, timeframes and expands product portfolio.

By September 9, 2020, the total sales volume via additional flexible volumes at
the ESP exceeded 40 bcm of gas. The ESP now competitive prices directly from
offers new instruments with geographical and vo- the Russian gas exporter
lume fl exibility: the former allows several delivery
points to choose from, while the latter allows sup-
ply volumes to vary on a daily basis. Besides, the The ESP is now established as both a source of
ESP introduced contracts linked to different energy spot gas purchases for European customers, and
commodities and gas indexes. 2 a source of fl exibility for Gazprom as it seeks to
This mechanism cannot be classifi ed as “classical” maximize both its European sales volumes and the
trading model like at the European gas markets. utilization rates of its export pipelines. At a more
The Gazprom export auctions should be conside- strategic level, it also provides Gazprom with the
red as a hybrid form of gas trading and new chan- opportunity to demonstrate that it continues to
nel of gas sales outside of its traditional long-term adapt to European market conditions without ful-
contract model. ly conceding that it will simply trade on European
F or European consumers, this is defi nitely a very hubs.
positive change. So they can get additional fl exi- The Gazprom Export ESP has every chance of
ble volumes at competitive prices directly from the becoming another powerful European gas hub ca-
Russian gas exporter. At the same time, the Euro- pable of competing with the leading European gas
pean gas midstreamers might loose a great portion hubs and taking away a signifi cant share of their
of their market power. Today they purchase large trade liquidity. This can become a reality if the volu-
volumes of Russian gas and then resell it to the mes of gas sold on the ESP continue to increase,
consumers down the supply chain. while the traded gas products are diversifi ed, and
It is clear that the new trading platform could be set the number of balance points where the transfer of

Impiantistica Italiana - Gennaio-Febbraio 2021 47 47