Still no Russian gas auctions scheduled on Gazprom Export's ESP

Russia's Gazprom Export will not hold any auctions for Russian gas on its Electronic Sales Platform in the week of Jan. 10-14, it said Jan. 10.

The company said on its website there were "no planned sales sessions" for the current week, which continues the recent trend for ESP auctions to be suspended.

The last scheduled ESP auctions were for the week of Oct. 25-29, while no sales have been recorded since Oct. 13.

Gazprom Export launched the ESP in September 2018 as a tool to sell surplus gas into Europe outside of its traditional long-term contract model and has sold more than 51 Bcm of gas since its launch.

However, sales slowed in the autumn and volumes sold in October totaled just 168 million cu m, then the smallest volume sold in a calendar month and lower even than the sales in the first month of operation in September 2018.

Gazprom has come in for criticism for not increasing supply to Europe at a time of sky-high gas prices, but the company has repeatedly said it has been meeting all of its customer obligations in full.

European gas prices hit repeated record highs toward the end of 2021, with unprecedented market volatility triggered by winter supply uncertainty.

The TTF day-ahead price hit an all-time high of Eur182.78/MWh on Dec. 21, according to S&P Global Platts assessments, a 985% increase year on year.

Prices have cooled somewhat since then, with Platts assessing the TTF day-ahead price at Eur86.73/MWh on Jan. 7.