Russia's president said in his state of the nation address to parliament on May 10 that Russia, as a leading oil exporting nation, should establish its own oil exchange to trade crude and petroleum products in rubles.
"We plan to launch Russian REBCO [Russian Export Blend Crude Oil] futures on the New York Stock Exchange from February 20 under an agreement with the NYSE," Minister German Gref told a conference between the president and the cabinet.
Gref said trade in futures contracts for Russian oil would eventually be transferred to Russian floors.
Russia supplies 25% of the gas consumed in Europe, and became the world's biggest oil producer in late August, according to the OPEC oil cartel.
Minister Gref also said that Russia will start operations on a domestic oil derivatives exchange by the end of 2006.
"I hope it will become fully operational next year," Gref said, adding that the current trading is conducted electronically and a location for the exchange has yet to be determined, but will probably be in St. Petersburg.
He said the creation of an oil exchange in Russia had also been gaining momentum and the ministry planned to start trading by the end of 2007.
"We need to draft a model futures contract [to start trading], "Gref said. "Then we will get an effective instrument to trade shares and hedge the risks."
Putin said in May that gas exchanges were also important.
"We forecast certain amounts of sales this year and can forecast approximate gas prices," Putin said.
