Gazprom aspires to sell gas for roubles outside of Russia after trade on the St. Petersburg bourse starts, the head of the oil, giant Alexey Miller, has said. Its launch is planned for 2009.

According to Miller, the company has started the creation of the bourse to trade gas futures.

Miller has said St. Petersburg will soon become a major gas trade centre.

However, the finance minister Alexey Kudrin told Russian broadcasting station “Business FM” that raw materials will be sold for roubles but in a long-time perspective.

He said roubles has become a convertible currency only 18 months ago and dozens of years must pass until roubles will be stable enough for all of the market participants.

The source in Gazprom which spoke to Interfax news agency said several changes must occur before large-scale gas trades happen on the exchange. These are: the internal and external gas prices approach, Nord and South Stream pipelines launch, facilities and resources allocation for spot deals, creation of plant to liquefy natural gas in Kola Peninsula, customs rules formulization and the supplies of gas acquired on the bourse through the sole agent.