Tomsk hosted the 7th meeting of representatives from the dispatch services of Gazprom’s gas production and transmission companies.

The meeting brought together heads and experts from Gazprom’s specialized subdivisions, as well as representatives from gas production and transmission subsidiaries.

The meeting was chaired by Boris Posyagin, Head of Gazprom’s Central Production and Dispatch Department (CPDD).

Addressing the meeting Boris Posyagin noted that despite a temporary decrease in gas demand caused by the global financial and economic crisis, the Russian Unified Gas Supply System (UGSS) was ready to operate during the upcoming fall-winter period with the loading level comparable at least to that of the previous year.

The speaker emphasized that Gazprom had carried out the work to identify which gas transmission corridors would be most demanded after the crisis end. So far, the Company’s facilities for gas pipeline diagnostics, reinsulation, repair and re-construction have been accumulated there in order to ensure the fulfillment of Gazprom’s gas supply obligations.

According to Boris Posyagin, the decreased loading of the gas transmission system (GTS) provided additional possibilities for operational costs saving, in particular, through the optimized utilization of compressor stations equipment. In addition, the load reduction made it possible to repair various sections of the GTS without significant performance drops.

Boris Posyagin said that over the past two years Gazprom had done a great scope of work to upgrade the automated dispatch control system – the pilot project of Gazprom’s Informatization Strategy. Particularly, a business model of dispatch control has been adopted, the system for integral representation of gas transmission processes has been upgraded.

The meeting addressed a number of questions relevant to enhancing the effectiveness of dispatch control, as well as defining the strategic directions of its development in order to retain high reliability of Gazprom’s gas transmission system. Special attention was paid to vocational training of the dispatch staff.

Based on the meeting results the decisions were taken identifying the key directions of the UGSS dispatch control development.