OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2009. The Saint Petersburg International Commodity Exchange is about to start conducting ascending-price auctions (English auctions) for the first time in its practice, reported the press-centre of TNK-BP.

The first ascending-price auction is requested by TNK-BP and scheduled for October 15.

The auction will offer 10,080 tons of light diesel fuel L—0.2—62 from the Ryazan Oil Refinery at a reserve price of 13,000 rubles per ton, 1,980 tons of Normal—80 gasoline from the Ryazan Oil Refinery at a reserve price of 20,000 rubles per ton, and 4,320 tons of Normal—80 gasoline from Yaroslavnefteorgsintez (YaNOS) at a reserve price of 20,000 rubles per ton.

The auction will last for 50 minutes with a bid step of 10 rubles.

The commodity exchange so far held only double auctions and two-way transactions.

Reports from the commodity exchange say that adoption of unilateral auctions will expand the possibilities of participants to sell their goods at the Saint Petersburg International Commodity Exchange. Sellers may get higher prices for their goods in ascending-price auctions.

TNK-BP said to the Petroleum Information Agency (ANI) that this kind of exchange trade is used for the first time and allows selling large volumes of products in single lots. “Ascending-price auction is one of the kinds of open trade of oil products that has not been used in Russian practice so far. Selling large lots of fuel in auctions is good for TNK-BP as it raises the efficiency of offload and supply logistics. According to the results of October 15 auction, we will make our decision on further trades based on the ascending-price auction mechanism,” said a representative of TNK-BP.

TNK-BP will continue selling its oil products in exchange auctions and building up the volume of such sales, added the company representative. “We think that diversification of the open trade of oil products using the exchange trade mechanisms will increase the number of potential buyers, enhance the transparency and liquidity of the market of oil products, and, as a result, raise the performance efficiency of the company. Exchange trade of oil products in Russia is a very promising way of conducting the business,” said the representative of TNK-BP.

TNK-BP started trades at the Saint Petersburg International Commodity Exchange in March 2009 and sold there approximately 50,000 tons of oil products (diesel fuel, gasoline, and jet fuel). Apart from that, in September 2009, TNK-BP started selling its oil products at the International Exchange of the Oil and Gas Complex and sold about 6,000 tons of diesel fuel and gasoline in September.

In the auction held on September 24 at the Saint Petersburg International Commodity Exchange, TNK-BP sold 180,000 tons of Ai—95 gasoline from Yaroslavnefteorgsintez (YaNOS) for 4.734 million rubles at an average price of 26,300 rubles per ton and 8,500 tons of jet fuel from the Sheremetyevo retail site for 140.25 million rubles at an average price of 16,600 rubles per ton. In the auction held on September 25, the company traded 180,000 tons of light diesel fuel from Yaroslavnefteorgsintez (YaNOS) for 2.52 million rubles at a price of 14,000 rubles per ton.