OREANDA-NEWS. October 14, 2009. The International Forum “Week of Efficient Gas Distribution and Utilization” has started today in Moscow. Gazprom’s delegation led by Oleg Aksyutin, Member of the Management Committee, Head of the Gas Transportation, Underground Storage and Utilization Department, is taking part in the event.

As part of the Forum a coordination meeting was held with regard to arranging the large-scale production of gas-powered motor vehicles and agricultural equipment. Addressing the meeting Oleg Aksyutin mentioned a strong interest by international motor vehicles producers in the large-scale production of gas cylinder vehicles. By now, the global fleet of such vehicles has exceeded 10 million units, while the gas consumption rate in vehicles annually grows by 20–25 per cent.

The speaker noted that Russia was also increasingly interested in natural gas as a fuel. There is an established gas filling infrastructure in the country sp far: 236 CNG filling stations have been build, of which Gazprom owns 199. In 2008 more than 330 million cubic meters of natural gas were sold via the CNG filling network. Considering the consumers’ persistent attention to natural gas as a fuel alternative, Gazprom continues expanding the CNG filling network even under the challenging conditions of the global economic crisis. In particular, the Company is constructing and completing another 11 stations.

Oleg Aksyutin particularly noted that conversion of equipment to natural gas in Russia was an essential goal at the state level. It is an important factor of raising projects efficiency in a variety of industries as well as in such national projects as “Health”, “Agrobusiness Industry Development” and “Affordable and Comfortable Housing” through considerable reduction of fuel costs and lower environmental impacts.

Special attention should be paid to production and introduction of environmentally friendly vehicles within the construction of Olympic facilities and development of Sochi as a mountain-climatic resort. In addition, a focus should also be placed on creation of the domestic fleet of urban, long-distance, rural and school buses running on natural gas.

In this regard it is vitally important nowadays to step up the adoption of legislative initiatives on the federal level to stimulate utilization of motor fuel alternatives in Russia, increased commercial production of gas-powered vehicles and intensive gasification of domestic motor vehicles.