OREANDA-NEWS. The Management Committee of Gazprom had heard a report on the Gazprom preliminary operating highlights over 2007, and the Investment Program, Budget and Cost Optimization Program Projections through 2009-2010, the Gazprom press service reported.

The meeting underscored that the Investment Program, Budget and Cost Optimization Program in 2007 are anticipated to be executed strictly in line with the preset targets.

The Management Committee took as a basis the Draft Investment Program, Budget (Financial Plan) and Cost Optimization Program Projections through 2009-2010 and ruled to complete the Draft Investment Program and Budget for 2008, and addressed the issues falling under the authority of the Gazprom Board of Directors.

The Gazprom Draft Investment Program for 2008 covers the most promising investment projects.
The major gas production projects are as follows: construction of the infrastructure for the Bovanenkovskoye and Kharasaveyskoye fields, Kharvutinskaya area of the Yamburgskoye field, Novoportovskoye, Yen-Yakhinskoye, Urengoyskoye, Zapolyarnoye and other fields.

The major gas transmission projects are: construction of the the gas main system Bovanenkovo-Ukhta, Gryazovets-Vyborg and Pochinki-Gryazovets gas pipelines, the SRTO-Torzhok gas main, branch pipeline to the towns of Arkhangelsk and Sverdlovsk as well as expansion of the Urengoi gas transportation  route.

Capital investments will also be channeled to reconstruct primary gas production facilities, technically reequip underground gas storage facilities, carry out engineering & design and geological exploration and conduct production drilling in fields.

The draft long-term financial investments plan for 2008 sees, in particular, Gazprom's participation in the Nord Stream and Sakhalin-2 projects as well as the projects of prospecting and operation in gas condensate and oil fields of the Arctic shelf of Russia including the Prirazlomnoye and Shtokman. Additionally, Gazprom plans to construct offshore facilities and LNG plant in the framework of the Shtokman gas condensate field operation, to participate in setting up a Russian-Kazakh joint venture based on the Orenburg gas processing complex, asset acquisition, in particular, Beltransgaz shares.

Additionally, the plan envisages investing in the projects on prospecting and development of fields abroad (in 112 Block located in the Republic of Vietnam, Bengal Bay and India), as well as granting long-term loans to Gazprom’s subsidiaries operating in the Yuzhno-Russkoye field, in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Venezuela and the Caspian Sea offshore.