As requested by Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, Gazprom has fully completed the gasification of the Marfino village in the Astrakhan Oblast. Gas has been delivered to the new consumers.

The Company performed the construction work on the street-level gas pipelines and gas laterals to 150 households of the Marfino village under tight deadlines. Therefore, all 740 houses of the village received gas before the commencement of cold weather.

Background

Gasification of Russian regions is carried out jointly by Gazprom and federal constituents' authorities. Thus, the Company finances construction of the inter-settlement gas pipelines delivering gas to population centers, while regional authorities take on street-level networks laying and preparation of consumers for gas supplies.

In 2009 Gazprom completed the construction of the inter-settlement gas pipeline from Kozlovo village to several settlements of the Volodarsky District, Astrakhan Oblast, including the Marfino village.

At the expense of the Astrakhan Oblast Government, inter-settlement gas pipelines were built in the Marfino village with a population of about 2.5 thousand people to ensure gas supply to individual houses. However, due to the lack of funds in the regional budget, more than 150 houses were not gasified.

In July 2011 Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, having considered the complaint by Nadezhda Syzranova, a resident of the Marfino village on the suspension of the inter-settlement gas pipeline construction, gave Gazprom an order to take measures and complete gasification of the village.

As ordered, Gazprom developed design and estimate documentation for the construction, received a positive opinion from the state expert board, a planning permission and completed all the necessary construction and assembly operations.

Gazprom makes significant investments in gasification of the Astrakhan Oblast. From 2004 to 2011 their amount exceeded RUB 2 billion which allowed to increase the regional gasification level to 75.6 per cent (by 6.1 per cent, while the identical figure throughout Russia averages 63.1 per cent). Upon that, the gasification level in the rural areas significantly grew by 16.3 per cent – to 63.2 per cent, which is much higher than Russia's average (46.7 per cent).