Today, the town of Surgut has hosted the Gazprom’s industry meeting for gas transmission system (GTS) upgrading.

The meeting was attended by the Gazprom’s delegation as well as heads and specialists of more than thirty subsidiaries of the Company.

The meeting particularly emphasized that GTS upgrading was a crucial business of Gazprom. Only within the 2007-10 Comprehensive Debottlenecking Program for Gas Transmission Facilities and UGS Compressor Stations about 500 gas pumping units will be upgraded and replaced, 5,000 km of pipelines and 324 gas distribution stations will be reconstructed. This will enable to increase the annual through put capacity of the gas main system by 32 bcm and to simultaneously save 3.5 bcm per year during the transmission process. The 2007-2010 period is planned to see a three fold reduction of the total gas pipeline length due to a lower operating pressure versus the initial design.

The participants addressed a range of matters targeted at successfully implementing the Comprehensive Debottlenecking Program. In particular, a focus was put on speeding up the preparation of project documents, bringing corporate by-laws in line with the changes in the Russian legislation and applying advanced technologies during gas pumping unit upgrading.

Reference:

The Gazprom Management Committee approved the 2007-10 Comprehensive Debottlenecking Program for Gas Transmission Facilities and UGS Compressor Stations in September 2006 and ordered to apply this document as a basis for formulating Gazprom’s annual and midterm investment programs covering the gas transmission system (GTS) reconstruction and technical re-equipment.

The Program is primarily aimed at higher GTS efficiency, operational reliability and industrial and environmental safety.