Rosneft and TNK-BP trade on Saint Petersburg exchange

Rosneft last week sold 6,700 tons of oil products for 97 million roubles ($2.9 million), according to the exchange, while TNK-BP sold around 5,300 tons of oil products - diesel and jet fuel - for a total of 75.4 million roubles ($2.2 million).

TNK-BP sold the diesel for delivery at the Ryazan Oil Refinery. Spimex recently signed a deal with pipeline operator Transneft to aid the physical delivery mechanism for products traded on the exchange.

"The latest trading session with participation of TNK-BP has considerably expanded the geographic scope of oil products delivery bases" says a statement from the exchange.

In 2006, then President, now Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin stated that the rouble needed to become more accepted for the international settlement of payments, to widen its sphere of influence. "It is therefore essential to establish the exchange trading of oil, gas and other commodities on the territory of Russian Federation, trading in roubles. We trade our commodities worldwide. Why don't we do it here?" he said.

In response, a group of key domestic energy and financial players, including Gazprom Neft, Rosneft, Transneft, and investment bank VTB founded Spimex in September 2008, to initially trade domestic oil products.