Aug 14. Novatek has joined gas trading on the Mezhregionagaz electronic gas exchange with "next day" shipments and broken Gazprom's monopoly in this market segment. According to the organizer of trading, yesterday during trading with shipment on August 14 an intraday high was recorded (2.1 mn cm, up 33% d-o-d), with the independent beginner accounting for 600,000 cu m. The price of gas turned out to be nearly the same as in the previous trading session, up 34.8% on FTS' price at gas distribution stations (GDS) for consumers. Gas buyers were OGK-1's Iriklinskaya and Kashirskaya GRES and Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant which participated in intraday trading for the first time.