Russia's OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS), the world's biggest producer of natural gas, said Thursday it has made its first entry into the U.S. market, trading and marketing natural gas.
Gazprom Marketing & Trading USA, a unit of Gazprom, said it has acquired gas supplies at hubs across North America.
"Gazprom has executed a number of innovative, long-term gas swap transactions that have allowed it to quickly gain a substantial physical gas supply position in North America," the company said.
The state-controlled company has signed deals, giving it more than 350 million cubic feet a day of physical supplies at several different locations all across the U.S., for the next three to seven years.
Gazprom will also market liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from its Sakhalin-2 project off Russia's Pacific Coast. The LNG will be regassified in a facility in Baja California, Mexico, from where it will be send by pipeline to south western U.S. markets.