The gas market on the Petersburg Exchange is structured so that gas trading takes place at three balancing points of the Gas Transmission System (GTS) — physical points through which gas moves from fields to the system and from which gas is transported to exit points. At balancing points, exchange contracts are formed, ownership transfers from seller to buyer, and gas is subsequently moved to the GTS exit points under contracts with the Gas Supply Operator.
In 2025, the volume of gas traded on the Petersburg Exchange totaled 15.6 billion cubic meters, roughly 10% of Russia’s total gas consumption by potential market participants.
Commercial gas balancing is a daily mechanism to correct deviations between actual consumption and planned volumes, as set by contracts between sellers and buyers. Balancing trades were launched on the Petersburg Exchange in 2021 and have been successfully addressing non-pickups caused by daily consumption fluctuations and buyers’ fulfillment of their off-take obligations for exchange gas for over five years. The balancing mechanism also enabled eliminating penalties for buyers for non-pick-up, which previously amounted to 15% of the value of unpicked volumes. The balancing of gas volumes not picked by off-exchange contracts is expected to broaden the scale of this mechanism and advance the industry. Available on social channels: VKontakte, Zen, T-pulse.