Led by Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Gazprom’s delegation finalized its business trip to the Far Eastern regions.

Today in the Khabarovsk Krai, Gazprom’s experts visited the construction site of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas trunkline, one of the prioritized facilities as part of the Eastern Gas Program.

In Khabarovsk Alexander Ananenkov held a meeting on the topical issues of the gas pipeline construction. Taking part in the meeting were Yaroslav Golko, Member of the Management Committee – Head of the Investment and Construction Department of Gazprom, heads and experts from Gazprom’s specialized subdivisions, subsidiaries and contracting agencies.

Alexander Ananenkov emphasized the strategic significance of the project for shaping the Unified Gas supply System in Eastern Russia, as well as for socio-economic development of Russia’s Far Eastern regions.

The Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas pipeline will be built on a tight deadline – the first start-up complex will be commissioned as early as in the third quarter of 2011. Meeting this challenge requires concentration of resources and mobilization of contracting agencies’ efforts.

Based on the 2009 results it is projected to weld a 312-kilometer-long section of the pipeline. Over 400 kilometers of pipe products were supplied by Russian plants in 2009. However, it was emphasized at the meeting that the pipeline construction paces and volumes of pipe products supply had to be increased.

Currently, about a thousand units of road-building equipment and some two thousand construction workers are engaged in the gas pipeline construction. The trunkline is being simultaneously constructed at six sections. As more pipes are supplied to the construction sites, the number of sections will be increased.

Based on the meeting results, Gazprom’s specialized subdivisions, subsidiaries and contracting agencies were entrusted with the tasks aimed at the timely execution of the project.

Background:

In September 2007 the Russian Federation Industry and Energy Ministry’s Order approved the Development Program for an integrated gas production, transportation and supply system in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, taking into account potential gas exports to China and other Asia-Pacific countries (Eastern Gas Program). Gazprom was appointed by the Russian Federation Government as the Program execution coordinator. The new Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yakutia, Kamchatka and Sakhalin gas production centers will be created in Eastern Russia.

Construction of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas trunkline is targeted at developing gas supply to the Khabarovsk Krai and the Sakhalin Oblast, as well as arranging gas deliveries to the Primorsky Krai. The trunkline construction was launched in July 2009, the first start-up complex will be brought onstream in the third quarter of 2011. In parallel, the work is being done to gasify the Sakhalin Oblast including conversion of CHPP-1 to natural gas in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

The 1,350-kilometer first start-up complex of the gas pipeline will have the annual capacity of 6 billion cubic meters. When brought to full capacity, the system will secure transportation of around 47.2 billion cubic meters, with some 30 billion cubic meters delivered from Sakhalin.

The Sakhalin Island shelf and the Yakutian fields will be the main resource base for the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas pipeline.

In July 2009 Gazprom was awarded the subsurface use licenses for the Kirinsky, Vostochno-Odoptinsky and Ayashsky blocks of the Sakhalin III project. So far, geological exploration is underway at the Kirinskoye field (license obtained in 2008). It is projected to bring the field onstream in 2014.