Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee held a meeting in Krasnaya Polyana concerning the progress with Gazprom's Olympic facilities construction and commissioning.

Taking part in the meeting were Deputy Chairmen of the Management Committee Valery Golubev and Vitaly Markelov; Members of the Management Committee: Oleg Aksyutin, Head of the Gas Transportation, Underground Storage and Utilization Department, Yaroslav Golko, Head of the Investment and Construction Department, Kirill Seleznev, Head of the Gas and Liquid Hydrocarbons Marketing and Processing Department, as well as representatives of the Company's structural units, subsidiary companies and contracting organizations.

The meeting lauded the progress with and the quality of the Company's Olympic facilities construction.

Specifically, the discussion centered construction of an integrated complex for cross-country skiing and biathlon competitions, and a Mountain Olympic Village. The integrated Biathlon and Ski Complex is unprecedented in the modern Russian history. The Complex is situated in the medium-height mountains. It is in the medium-height mountains where world cross-country skiing and biathlon competitions take place on a regular basis, that's why the complex stands a good chance to become the main training center for Russian skiers and biathletes.

This February and March the Russian Biathlon Cup, the Russian Cross-Country Skiing Cup and the Russian Cross-Country Skiing and Biathlon Championship among sportsmen with spinal cord injury and vision disorders were successfully held here. Moreover, in September the first summer training camp of the Russian Women's Biathlon team took place here.

At present, construction of the facilities of the Integrated Biathlon and Ski Complex and of the Mountain Olympic Village continues, and specifically consists in driveways building. A semi-closed shooting range is ready to be commissioned.

In the meantime, Gazprom continues developing the Mounting Tourist Center. Hotel resorts with a total of thousand people housing capacity, fifteen kilometers of pistes with various difficulty levels and six aerial cableways with the total length of 7,645 meters function within the Center. The construction of one of the most important transport facilities is underway, that is, of the five kilometer long cableway to connect the Biathlon and Ski Complex to the Alpika-Service transport hub, where a high-speed train from the Sochi airport will arrive. Construction of transport and engineering infrastructure facilities goes on. The second line of a long-distance cableway Psekhako II is about to be put into operation.

To eliminate energy deficiency in the Krasnodar Territory and to supply the Olympic facilities with energy Gazprom is building the Adler combined heat and power station (CHPS). It will be the main supplier of power to Sochi and adjacent areas. This is a high-technology facility with power units efficiency of 52 per cent, power capacity of 360 MW and heat capacity of 227.8 Gcal per hour. Today, electrical equipment tests and start-up operations are being conducted at the station. The Adler CHPS is to be put onstream in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The Krasnodar Territory gasification issues were also discussed at the meeting, including gas supply to the Olympic facilities. In the framework of its Gasification Program for 2005–2011, Gazprom has allocated about RUB 9.4 billion to build eighteen inter-settlement gas pipelines with the total length of 270 kilometers.

Current year investments will amount to about RUB 2.2 billion. These funds are used to carry out intense gasification efforts in the region.

Construction of two gas pipelines continues and laying of two more pipelines has started.

Laying of two strings of a gas pipeline connecting the automatic gas distribution station in Adler to the Adler CHPS has finished. The gas pipeline supplies the bulk of gas to the power station and the Adler District settlements.

Gazprom finished constructing the linepipe of the second string of the Adler – Krasnaya Polyana – Esto-Sadok gas pipeline, through which gas will be supplied to the Olympic facilities. Comprehensive testing of the gas pipeline is in progress.

The work on gasification of villages, settlements and the central part of the Adler District continues. To be more exact, construction of 42 gas pipelines that will supply not only the Olympic facilities, but also more than thirty settlements of the District, is ongoing.

“The Olympic Games have always occupied a special place in the history of mankind. It is a real trial of strength and spirit of the world's best sportsmen. Russia will host this outstanding sports event before long.

For Gazprom, participation in the preparations for the Olympics is not only a responsibility, but a veritable challenge to our employees' professionalism, talents and experience. Our company acts upon the Olympic motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger”, that is why the Olympic facilities are constructed with maximum dedication. As a result, at our facilities the Olympians will be provided with everything necessary for them to concentrate on their main task of becoming the best on sports grounds and winning the highest Olympic prizes,” Alexey Miller said.

Background

In November 2007 the Federal Law was adopted “On organizing and holding the 2014 XXII Winter Olympic Games and XI Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi, developing Sochi as a mountain-climatic resort and amending certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation”. Pursuant to the document, the Russian Government approved the Program for construction of Olympic facilities and development of Sochi as a mountain-climatic resort.

According to the Program, Gazprom is responsible for constructing the following Olympic facilities:

• a Biathlon and Ski Complex accommodating 16 thousand people, with two access roads and a hotel complex;
• a Mountain Tourist Center;
• the Dzhubga – Lazarevskoye – Sochi gas pipeline;
• the Adler combined heat and power station.

In addition, Gazprom was identified as the company responsible for gasification of villages, settlements and the central part of the Adler District.