OREANDA-NEWS. March 31, 2010.  The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Vyacheslav Shport, Governor of the Khabarovsk Krai.

The meeting addressed the implementation of the Agreement of Cooperation and the Accord on Gasification between Gazprom and the Khabarovsk Krai Government.

Alexey Miller and Vyacheslav Shport addressed the issues of gas supply to and gasification development in the region. The parties noted that these activities would subsequently rely on the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas transmission system (GTS) being built by Gazprom. It has been emphasized that the 500th kilometer of the gas pipeline (approximately one third of the entire route) was welded on this very day.
Background

Gazprom and the Khabarovsk Krai Government entered into the Agreement of Cooperation in April 2002  and extended it in November 2009. The Accord on Gasification was signed in December 2005.

Natural gas penetration in the Khabarovsk Krai averages 14.4 per cent including 17 per cent in cities and towns and 0.2 per cent in the rural area. The identical figures throughout Russia account for 63.2, 67.5 and 45.5 per cent accordingly.

In 2009 Gazprom worked out the General Scheme for gas supply to and gasification of the Khabarovsk Krai. In 2009 the Company allocated RUB 20 million to launch engineering and construction of three regional inter-settlement gas pipelines with the total length of 37 kilometers. RUB 90 million are slated for these operations in the current year.

The Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok GTS is a top priority of the Eastern Gas Program approved by the Russian Industry and Energy Ministry’s Order of September 2007. The project is  targeted at improving gas supply to and gasification of the Far Eastern Federal Okrug. The GTS construction was initiated in July 2009, the first startup complex will be put onstream in the third quarter of 2011.