OREANDA-NEWS. November 30. The Russian Industry and Energy Ministry, in collaboration with related government agencies, expects to draft proposals for regular operations of a natural gas exchange in Russia by September 2008. As it was reported by Ivan Selivakhin, head of a branch of the ministry's Tariff Policy Department, a corresponding directive has been included in a document submitted to the government in order to amend regulations on natural gas exchange trade in Russia.

He stressed that all the agencies concerned were interested in this step, and that there would be no procrastination in this matter.

Speaking about the ending experiment "5+5", Selivakhin noted that all the performance targets were hit. Trading sessions' results showed the significant interest of the market players in such electronic trading place. He added that transition to the daily work basis would let market participants "to purchase the straight amounts of gas they need only this specific day." While the "take or pay" principle makes it possible to sell extra amounts of gas through the exchange - that's vital for the electric power enterprises.