Today, the Mozhga district of the Udmurt Republic has hosted a solemn ceremony dedicated to the completion of the Karashur underground gas storage (UGS) facility preparation for commercial gas withdrawals.

Attending the ceremony were Alexander Volkov, President of the Udmurt Republic, Gazprom’s delegation led by Bogdan Budzulyak, Deputy Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Head of the Gas Transportation, Underground Storage and Utilization Department, Viktor Chichelov, Permtransgaz’s Director General and representatives of Permtransgaz.

At a rally held as part of the ceremony Bogdan Budzulyak stressed that “increasing the number of Gazprom’s UGS facilities enhanced the reliability of Russia’s gas transmission network and enabled to prompter respond to changes in Russian consumers’ natural gas needs during seasonal fluctuations.”

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Having 640 and 7.5 mln cu m of design and maximum daily send-out capacity, respectively, the Karashur UGS facility is the first depot of the Udmurt Reserve Complex of UGS Facilities, to be later on followed by another three including the Chezhebash, North Chezhebash and Novotroitskoye ones.

The working and daily send-out of the Udmurt Reserve Complex of UGS Facilities is projected at 2.6 bcm and 43.4 mln cu m, respectively.

Brought into operation in 2003, the Karashur UGS facility has been operational for gas injection and storage. Largely completed by now, experimental gas withdrawals from the Karashur UGS facility were launched in July 2005 for the purpose of testing the equipment functioning, specifying the geological model of the reservoir bed and determining the virtual well capacity during the withdrawal process. The move allowed to have the Karashur UGS facility and supporting infrastructure prepared for commercial gas withdrawals.

First withdrawals of commercial gas are slated for December of this year, with the maximum daily send-out over the 2005-06 autumn-winter heating season projected at 5.5 mln cu m.

By the start of the upcoming autumn-winter period, 62.6 bcm of commercial gas reserves will be built up in the RF UGS facilities, which are currently being filled with gas ahead of time. As of 25 August 2005, 34.1 bcm of gas (78.7 percent versus the total gas reserves withdrawn last year) was injected into UGS facilities of Russia, with the maximum daily send-out expected to reach 568 mln cu m by the start of the withdrawal period.

Gazprom counts on a manifold network of UGS facilities that includes 24 gas storage units built in aquifers and on depleted gas & condensate fields.

The UGS network allows Gazprom both to shave seasonal gas consumption disproportions and provide separate Russian constituents with winter-time gas supplies from UGS facilities only.

Gazprom is intent on increasing the overall capacity of UGS facilities by debottlenecking existing and constructing new UGS facilities.

The annual dynamics of commercial gas reserve growth throughout the RF UGS facilities is presented below:

- 1998 – 45 bcm;

- 2004 – 62.5 bcm;

- 2010 (forecast) – 82 bcm.

Before 2010, the peak daily send-out of the RF UGS facilities is planned to reach 700 mln cu m.

DIVISION OF RELATIONS WITH MASS MEDIA