These guidelines are provided to give market participants an insight into the high level processes followed by gasTrading in facilitating trades in the Spot Market. These processes are supported by a complex series of robust models. The overriding principle for gasTrading is fair treatment of all Sellers by facilitating non-discriminatory access to sales of equivalent value and transparency to all parties.

1. By the middle of each month, Sellers provide gasTrading with an indication of the gas volumes they anticipate they will have available for sale for the next month and the minimum price they will accept for that gas.
2. gasTrading aggregates the volumes of gas available for sale and, in the middle of the month,. Buyers are invited to  subscribe to the invitation service in the bottom part of the screen. The service sends to all subscribed parties an Invitation to Treat setting out the anticipated Available Gas for each day of the next month.
3. Parties interested in purchasing gas in the next month are invited to respond to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  with an Offer or Offers to Buy. Offers to Buy must specify a volume of gas, typically quoted in TJ/d, the days on which the gas is required and the price the Purchaser is willing to pay for the gas. Purchasers are encouraged to bid a price that reflects the ‘value’ of the gas to them.
   
   1. Purchasers may seek flexibility in supply by providing an MDQ for the month and providing a forecast of requirements for all or some days of the month. Nominations to change the initial forecast will need to be made before the nomination lead time.  MDQ’s must reflect the forecast.
   2. gasTrading reserves the right to accept or reject any requested flexibility.
4. Once bids are received, gasTrading will stack the Offers to Buy according to price and prepare an initial allocation of the Available Gas to match the Offers to Buy, prorated across the Sellers.
   
   1. In allocating the Offers to Buy to Sellers, gasTrading will, as efficiently as possible, allocate gas to the highest priced Offers to Buy first, across all eligible Sellers.  gasTrading will continue to prorate each Seller’s gas to successively lower priced Offers until either the volume of a Seller’s available gas is exhausted or the bid price falls below the Seller’s minimum selling price.
   2. The average price achieved by a Seller will be determined by the quantity of gas the Seller offers for sale, the minimum price the Seller is prepared to accept and the delivery point or points at, and pipelines into, which the Seller can supply gas.  A Seller of a larger volume of gas, with a robust minimum sale price, will inevitably sell more gas into lower priced contracts and achieve a lower average price because other Sellers will have run out of gas before reaching the lower priced sales. 
   3. A Seller’s participation in some Offers to Buy may be limited by the Seller’s ability to access the Purchaser’s designated Points of Supply.
   4. In some cases, if a Seller is restricted from participating in Offers to Buy, because of the Seller’s Points of Supply are restrictive, another party may facilitate a swap of gas from one pipeline to another and the party accommodating the swap is entitled to 2% of the revenue from the volume of gas swapped.
5. Sellers have the right to decline to participate in any and all sales at their sole discretion.
6. Purchasers are advised before the commencement of the month of the volume, if any, of their Offers to Buy that gasTrading anticipates supplying.  gasTrading will not reallocate Available Gas to unsuccessful Purchasers who table a revised priced offer after receiving a notice that they were not allocated any, or sufficient, gas.
7. Actual gas deliveries will vary from the initial allocation of Available Gas over the month as Seller and Purchasers volumes fluctuate throughout the month. gasTrading will review the gas balance each day (for the following day) and issue Scheduling Notices on a day ahead basis advising Purchasers, and Sellers where required, of the quantity of gas which gasTrading plans to deliver on the next day. Following the end of a gas day gasTrading will issue a Delivery Notice setting out the actual delivered quantities and the participating Sellers.
8. gasTrading may accept Offers to Buy at any time, including following the initial allocation of Available Gas, during a month.  An Offer to Buy received after the monthly bidding round is a Late Bid. Offers to Buy a Material Volume of gas received by gasTrading following the initial allocation of Available Gas or during a month, will only be met if a new Seller is identified or if additional volumes of gas are made available by existing Sellers (“Additional Available Gas”). A Material Volume of gas would be a volume, in aggregate for the month, greater than approximately 25% of the anticipated daily average volume for a month.
   
   1. gasTrading would anticipate the price of any Late Bid would need to be higher than existing Spot Sales. A price at this level would result in existing Sellers ‘floating’ up into the new sale and the Additional Available Gas would both flow into the Late Bid and replace the volume of gas that has ‘floated’ up from the lower priced sales.
   2. The price of the Additional Available Gas will reflect the weighted average price of all the sales into which the gas was placed.
9. In the absence of a Late Bid, gasTrading may introduce and include new Sellers into the market at any time, including following the initial allocation of Available Gas, during a month.  A Seller introduced into the market after the monthly bidding round is a Late Seller. Late Sellers’ volumes will be allocated to the lowest price sale initially and will be used to supply Late Bids. A Late Seller will only remain a Late Seller for the balance of any month where they enter the market after the monthly bidding round is complete.
10. gasTrading sells gas as an agent of the Seller and is paid commission by the Seller for creating and managing the sale.
11. Arrangements can be made to accommodate situations where a Seller does not want to use gasTrading’s agency structure, or does not wish to take credit risk or wishes to remain anonymous. For these parties arrangements can be put in place with Agora Gas to take an equity position in the gas, purchasing the gas directly from the Seller and then on-selling the gas into the Spot Market.  In this case the Purchaser will contract on the same basis and using the same form of agreement and only the identity of the Seller will change