OREANDA-NEWS.  January 30, 2008.  St. Petersburg hosted a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Valentina Matvienko, Governor of St. Petersburg.

The parties addressed the progress with the Cooperation Agreement between Gazprom and the St. Petersburg Government. A focus was placed on issues related to gasification of St. Petersburg’s suburbs, reconstruction of thermal energy facilities in the Petrogradsky, Kurortny and Petrodvortsovy districts of St.Petersburg and other areas of cooperation.

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A five-year Cooperation Agreement between Gazprom and the St. Petersburg Government was signed in 2003 and the Cooperation Accord for 2008 – in December 2007.

In December 2006 Gazprom and the St. Petersburg Government approved a Program on Gas Supply to St. Petersburg for 2007-2017 and potentially up to 2025.

In 2007 Gazprom supplied nearly 11 bcm of natural gas to St. Petersburg’s consumers. This year deliveries are planned at nearly 11.4bcm.

The majority of St. Petersburg’s consumers pay for natural gas in advance. As of January 1, 2008, advance payments amount to RUR 790 mln.

The average gasification level of St. Petersburg is 81.4 per cent versus Russia’s average figure of 58 per cent.

During 2002-2007 Gazprom invested nearly RUR 2.2 bln to gasify St. Petersburg’s suburbs. In 2007 alone Gazprom put into operation 11 inter-settlement pipelines with a total length of 86.7 km. In 2008 Gazprom plans to assign RUR 1.3 bln to gasify St. Petersburg’s suburbs.

Pursuant to the 2008 Cooperation Accord between Gazprom and St.Petersburg, the Company will go on participating in the reconstruction of thermal energy facilities in St. Petersburg’s Petrogradsky, Kurortny and Petrodvortsovy districts. In 2004-2007 Gazprom allocated RUR 5.18 bln to reconstruct thermal energy facilities in these districts. The funds were used to construct 64 modern boiler houses. In 2008 investments are planned at around RUR 5.5 mln.